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Folks, This Ain't Normal
Farmer Joel Salatin is the 21st century's thinking man's farmer who believes that the answer to rebuilding America is to start with the family farm and for those farms to thrive, we all need to learn how to eat naturally again. Salatin's solutions as presented in the book are very simple and easy to implement in any American household - whether in the suburbs of Chicago, the mountains of Colorado, or urban life in New York City. When it comes to food we can make a big difference by putting our money where our mouth is: all it takes is desire, education and shopping and cooking savvy. Statistics say that 25 percent of all food in America is consumed in automobiles - now that's a statistic that Farmer Joel Salatin wants to change!
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First published January 1, 2011
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About the author
Joel Salatin
59 books669 followersJoel F. Salatin is an American farmer, lecturer, and author.
Salatin raises livestock on his Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Meat from the farm is sold by direct marketing to consumers and restaurants.
Salatin raises livestock on his Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Meat from the farm is sold by direct marketing to consumers and restaurants.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 564 reviews
November 7, 2018
I'm about 1/3 the way into this book (I've had to return it because there are other people on hold for it) and I find Mr. Salatin to be something of a hypocrite. The funny thing is that I generally agree with many of his over-arching ideas, but the guy just comes across as a major jerk and I have a hard time taking him seriously. He's got some good points and some great ideas but he delivers them like a crusty old man, cane in the air, yelling, "Back in MY day, you whippersnappers wouldn't have survived ten minutes and because of that, the world is falling apart."
He seems defensive about so many things that I don't find enjoyment in his thoughts on working in harmony with the land. His story is similar to Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life but while I found hers to be inspiring, enlightening, funny, and generally uplifting, I find his to be preachy, attempting to induce guilt, self-righteous, and pretentious.
I know he said he loves debate and maybe he feels that's what gives him license to foist his opinions upon his audience in an aggressive and sometimes unpleasant fashion. Maybe that's what lets him judge others in the exact same way he hates being judged. Maybe that's what allows him to label me, a tattooed and pierced video-game player, as "aberrant", though I also grow my own garlic, have butchered chickens, and gather/chop firewood every summer. It just seems to me that someone who lauds the concept of balance - with the land, on the farm, in life - cannot seem to understand the idea of balance among society. Not all of us can or want to be farmers. It's ok to be an accountant. It's ok to be a surfer. It's ok to be a video game developer. All these people make our society a much more rich place than it would be were we all farmers.
I think he's absolutely right: people should be more aware of how the earth works but I think he could probably probably learn some lessons as to how the world works.
I plan to finish reading the book, as pugnacious as I am finding the author. I have learned two things, so far (the various names for bovine and the existence of Small Plot Intensive Farming, something I plan to look into), and any book that teaches me stuff, regardless of my opinion of the author, deserves to be finished.
UPDATE: It took a long, long time, but I (grudgingly) finished this book. I got a lot out of it but this guy seriously irritates me so it was hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, which is something he explains in one of the chapters so look at me being all relevant and cutesy at the same time.
I would have liked bibliographical references. I can go through the effort of fact-checking his information but I would have liked to have had a list of resources as a starting point, were I to be so ambitious. As I've mentioned in other reviews, it is difficult to take someone seriously when they spout facts and don't offer backup. To me, that means the person's facts can only be regarded as opinion.
Some of my takeaways:
-I need to be better about personal water conservation. I'm in Colorado and he mentions that keeping rain barrels is illegal. However, I've come across some conflicting information, so now this is a point I will need to research. If I truly can keep rain barrels now, I will definitely begin to do so.
-I can feel pretty good about my own, personal efforts to live responsibly. I do compost, I garden, my husband makes our bread (we still buy flour, but we try to buy healthy flour), I buy local when possible, and we try to support our community as much as possible.
-I don't want to be a farmer. While the idea is charming and wonderful, the reality is a bit much for me. I like to solve problems, but I'm not great at logistics and running a household taxes my limited capabilities, as it is. I couldn't do a whole farm. However, I have even greater appreciation for the traditional farms in my area.
-I'm fairly proud of my early education. One of the things Salatin harped on in a chapter is how farmers are looked down-upon and no one would ever think of farming as a career opportunity. As I was growing up, farming was always shown to be a viable occupation. In my community, farmers are another type of civil servant. They may not be governmental entities, but they exist for the betterment of the community, much like teachers, firefighters, police officers, librarians (what a shameless self-plug, right??) and everyone else who works to help their neighbors and knows they won't be paid much to do so. Maybe that's why there were so many kids in 4-H when I was in school; farming was never seen as a hick thing to do. It was actual career option and was taken seriously.
Mostly, though, I just want to shove Mr. Salatin into a pile of his own pig manure and tell him that if he wants to get his message across, he might try being less of a sarcastic bully and instead think about being more welcoming to people who might be interested in changing the way they live but don't know how to go about doing so.
I would definitely recommend Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life over this book. Thank goodness Salatin also recognizes the power of Kingsolver's work; I'd have had to truly ignore him, otherwise.
He seems defensive about so many things that I don't find enjoyment in his thoughts on working in harmony with the land. His story is similar to Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life but while I found hers to be inspiring, enlightening, funny, and generally uplifting, I find his to be preachy, attempting to induce guilt, self-righteous, and pretentious.
I know he said he loves debate and maybe he feels that's what gives him license to foist his opinions upon his audience in an aggressive and sometimes unpleasant fashion. Maybe that's what lets him judge others in the exact same way he hates being judged. Maybe that's what allows him to label me, a tattooed and pierced video-game player, as "aberrant", though I also grow my own garlic, have butchered chickens, and gather/chop firewood every summer. It just seems to me that someone who lauds the concept of balance - with the land, on the farm, in life - cannot seem to understand the idea of balance among society. Not all of us can or want to be farmers. It's ok to be an accountant. It's ok to be a surfer. It's ok to be a video game developer. All these people make our society a much more rich place than it would be were we all farmers.
I think he's absolutely right: people should be more aware of how the earth works but I think he could probably probably learn some lessons as to how the world works.
I plan to finish reading the book, as pugnacious as I am finding the author. I have learned two things, so far (the various names for bovine and the existence of Small Plot Intensive Farming, something I plan to look into), and any book that teaches me stuff, regardless of my opinion of the author, deserves to be finished.
UPDATE: It took a long, long time, but I (grudgingly) finished this book. I got a lot out of it but this guy seriously irritates me so it was hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, which is something he explains in one of the chapters so look at me being all relevant and cutesy at the same time.
I would have liked bibliographical references. I can go through the effort of fact-checking his information but I would have liked to have had a list of resources as a starting point, were I to be so ambitious. As I've mentioned in other reviews, it is difficult to take someone seriously when they spout facts and don't offer backup. To me, that means the person's facts can only be regarded as opinion.
Some of my takeaways:
-I need to be better about personal water conservation. I'm in Colorado and he mentions that keeping rain barrels is illegal. However, I've come across some conflicting information, so now this is a point I will need to research. If I truly can keep rain barrels now, I will definitely begin to do so.
-I can feel pretty good about my own, personal efforts to live responsibly. I do compost, I garden, my husband makes our bread (we still buy flour, but we try to buy healthy flour), I buy local when possible, and we try to support our community as much as possible.
-I don't want to be a farmer. While the idea is charming and wonderful, the reality is a bit much for me. I like to solve problems, but I'm not great at logistics and running a household taxes my limited capabilities, as it is. I couldn't do a whole farm. However, I have even greater appreciation for the traditional farms in my area.
-I'm fairly proud of my early education. One of the things Salatin harped on in a chapter is how farmers are looked down-upon and no one would ever think of farming as a career opportunity. As I was growing up, farming was always shown to be a viable occupation. In my community, farmers are another type of civil servant. They may not be governmental entities, but they exist for the betterment of the community, much like teachers, firefighters, police officers, librarians (what a shameless self-plug, right??) and everyone else who works to help their neighbors and knows they won't be paid much to do so. Maybe that's why there were so many kids in 4-H when I was in school; farming was never seen as a hick thing to do. It was actual career option and was taken seriously.
Mostly, though, I just want to shove Mr. Salatin into a pile of his own pig manure and tell him that if he wants to get his message across, he might try being less of a sarcastic bully and instead think about being more welcoming to people who might be interested in changing the way they live but don't know how to go about doing so.
I would definitely recommend Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life over this book. Thank goodness Salatin also recognizes the power of Kingsolver's work; I'd have had to truly ignore him, otherwise.
May 29, 2015
If I had read this ten years ago I would of been tearing my hair out, given it 3 stars, and written a long, obnoxious review about how of course he's right about some things --but-- if he would only open his eyes and accept that if we got real reform and the right laws passed and cleaned up our institutions everything would be fixed!!
On this day though, after reading many off-the-beaten-path books through many years, after many afternoons sitting in inner-cities with foster kids thinking about the welfare state, after many days standing in someone else's kitchen thinking about outsourcing work and industrialization and modernity, many years having listened to office-resident peers treat my caregiving jobs as "not real" work done by failures and being fascinated by the grotesque elitism and disconnect, after pondering the prescriptions offered by a for-profit world, dreamless of anything except quantity; well, on this day, I say: there were less than half-a-dozen paragraphs/sentiments I disagreed with.
And he earned those disagreements, even those very few slippery connections and rants which burst forth from him; him, a man profoundly horrified the cycle of misery, abuse, and degradation created by our elites in their quest for power.
I'm bemused by the reviews which fault him for daring to connect video-game culture, travel-addicted culture, or work-outside-the-home culture to the destruction of the earth. We all have our little idols and pleasures of course. But coltan mining, resource extraction, the psychological misery which makes people dependent on the pharmaceutical industry (not to mention the video-game and medical industries horrific pollution); well, read a little bit about those things and then go ahead and fault Salatin for seeing the bigger picture. I accept that my laptop and my record player and my thousands of printed books are dependent upon an infrastructure which should never of existed. I'm willing to lose them to create a healthier world, a world which I think offers its own gifts that we've just lost the sensory and emotional ability to appreciate. It's great you have chickens in the backyard, but is gaming so precious you're willing to wreck the Congo for it? Willing to set up the trash heaps in Ghana? At what point do we accept limits for ourselves, for our wants and dreams, and not just cast stones at the corporations who have simply, so often, given us the bread and circuses we demanded?
I have profound respect for Salatin. For that reason, I think part of the ending of the book is worth quoting, and worth keeping in mind by our yuppies, technocrats, pro-future-anything, pro-science-can-do-no-wrong-even-though-I-never-ask-whose-science-whose-rationality-whose-bias. Here they are:
"Long after we've experimented with the final bizarre thing to feed cows, they will still do best eating grass. After we've exhausted the drugs, vaccines, and transgenic modification, our animals will still want to express their distinctives, live in historically normal habitats, and fill their traditional role.
"Long after the final i-gadget has been discovered, we'll still yearn for hugs, kisses, and personal conversations. When we've traveled to the last exotic place and finished participating in the last recreational or entertainment venue on our list, we will want a haven and we will call it home.
"...I'm surrounded by loving family - multiple generations. I'm surrounded by enthusiastic young people. I'm surrounded by land that I've watched heal over these last fifty years, from a worn-out, gullied mess to verdant pastures supporting poultry, cows, pigs, and rabbits. The intensity of my feelings springs from the intimacy of my knowledge of this place, its surroundings, the weather patterns, the seasons. I believe this is historically normal, and I covet that for others. Now go be a normal person."
On this day though, after reading many off-the-beaten-path books through many years, after many afternoons sitting in inner-cities with foster kids thinking about the welfare state, after many days standing in someone else's kitchen thinking about outsourcing work and industrialization and modernity, many years having listened to office-resident peers treat my caregiving jobs as "not real" work done by failures and being fascinated by the grotesque elitism and disconnect, after pondering the prescriptions offered by a for-profit world, dreamless of anything except quantity; well, on this day, I say: there were less than half-a-dozen paragraphs/sentiments I disagreed with.
And he earned those disagreements, even those very few slippery connections and rants which burst forth from him; him, a man profoundly horrified the cycle of misery, abuse, and degradation created by our elites in their quest for power.
I'm bemused by the reviews which fault him for daring to connect video-game culture, travel-addicted culture, or work-outside-the-home culture to the destruction of the earth. We all have our little idols and pleasures of course. But coltan mining, resource extraction, the psychological misery which makes people dependent on the pharmaceutical industry (not to mention the video-game and medical industries horrific pollution); well, read a little bit about those things and then go ahead and fault Salatin for seeing the bigger picture. I accept that my laptop and my record player and my thousands of printed books are dependent upon an infrastructure which should never of existed. I'm willing to lose them to create a healthier world, a world which I think offers its own gifts that we've just lost the sensory and emotional ability to appreciate. It's great you have chickens in the backyard, but is gaming so precious you're willing to wreck the Congo for it? Willing to set up the trash heaps in Ghana? At what point do we accept limits for ourselves, for our wants and dreams, and not just cast stones at the corporations who have simply, so often, given us the bread and circuses we demanded?
I have profound respect for Salatin. For that reason, I think part of the ending of the book is worth quoting, and worth keeping in mind by our yuppies, technocrats, pro-future-anything, pro-science-can-do-no-wrong-even-though-I-never-ask-whose-science-whose-rationality-whose-bias. Here they are:
"Long after we've experimented with the final bizarre thing to feed cows, they will still do best eating grass. After we've exhausted the drugs, vaccines, and transgenic modification, our animals will still want to express their distinctives, live in historically normal habitats, and fill their traditional role.
"Long after the final i-gadget has been discovered, we'll still yearn for hugs, kisses, and personal conversations. When we've traveled to the last exotic place and finished participating in the last recreational or entertainment venue on our list, we will want a haven and we will call it home.
"...I'm surrounded by loving family - multiple generations. I'm surrounded by enthusiastic young people. I'm surrounded by land that I've watched heal over these last fifty years, from a worn-out, gullied mess to verdant pastures supporting poultry, cows, pigs, and rabbits. The intensity of my feelings springs from the intimacy of my knowledge of this place, its surroundings, the weather patterns, the seasons. I believe this is historically normal, and I covet that for others. Now go be a normal person."
June 13, 2017
Joel Salatin can be a little too folksy at times. I have a feeling that if he & I were to sit down & talk politics, we might shortly start shouting at each other. He tends to over generalize about people whose views he dislikes; for example, it's an awfully big leap to assume that a woman who complains to her HOA about a neighbor's tomato plant is also a Democrat. This does not make him even one iota wrong about the state of food in this country, however. There is information within this book that will make your blood boil, and this is in spite of the fact that he never even really discusses the atrocities we routinely commit against animals so we can turn them into food. That books like this can even be published makes me try to stay hopeful. There are options out there, and they increase every day in spite of the efforts of ConAgra and the USDA. The more people talk about where our food comes from, the more this subject becomes something people actually discuss, the more alternatives people have to going to King Sooper's and buying some sad chicken carcass that's covered with feces & campylobacter, the better off everyone will be.
August 27, 2012
I think Joel does great work regarding farming and food production. But im not reviewing Joel or even his philospohy This is a book review and what I'm disappointed about t is the patronizing tone. Page 168 "I have news for you: That lumber doesn't grow there (in a hardware shop)..."
Not exactly news to me. Is it to you? There are many examples like that which I found annoying.
To even elect to pick up this book suggests the reader has an interest in health, food and the environment. There is also probably good reason to believe the reader has some knowledge in these areas and supports Joel's ideals.
So why does he write a book that repeatedly tells his readers they are ignorant fools? Other than the tone, I found much of the book interesting. Had he acknowledged his readers better, it would have made more sense to me.
Not exactly news to me. Is it to you? There are many examples like that which I found annoying.
To even elect to pick up this book suggests the reader has an interest in health, food and the environment. There is also probably good reason to believe the reader has some knowledge in these areas and supports Joel's ideals.
So why does he write a book that repeatedly tells his readers they are ignorant fools? Other than the tone, I found much of the book interesting. Had he acknowledged his readers better, it would have made more sense to me.
July 10, 2015
Joe salatin has become famous over the decades as a Virginia farmer who uses older folkways of farming to successfully have a modern and profitable farm. So he does not use any chemicals or pharmaceuticals in his rather large livestock operation , but rather composted fertilizers, and symbiotic animal living for soil and animal health respectively. And has been wildly successful, from about 100 acres of arable (and 400 of woods/forest) he and his family have taken a highly eroded and worn out farm and now raises and sells thousands of pounds of grass fed beef, pasture chickens, acorn hogs, pasture rabbits, eggs. He says what is normal both in farming and in commerce is the way usa had been doing it for that last 150 years, not the last 30. he is a libertarian and radical so some of his ideas are completely nuts, but also some are very practical and commonsensical. Quite an eye opening book about federal govt protection of industrial food system and the persecution of the little guy. He says to eat local and close, to get to know the farmers who grow your food, and to not use chemical and transgenic and big pharma as it is bad for us and the earth. I think we should listen to him and try to do what he says.
ps i am not doing justice at all to this book as it is completely packed to the gills with facts, opinions, wild mood swings, wild topic swings, and well, about 400 pages of salatin rant which is equivalent to having a rather folksy, libertarian, funny, mostly interesting, but sometimes infuriating, encyclopedia dumped into your brain.....
ps i am not doing justice at all to this book as it is completely packed to the gills with facts, opinions, wild mood swings, wild topic swings, and well, about 400 pages of salatin rant which is equivalent to having a rather folksy, libertarian, funny, mostly interesting, but sometimes infuriating, encyclopedia dumped into your brain.....
February 23, 2018
A definite meh. I was looking for more down-to-earth validation than preachy libertarianism.
What I heard: blah blah blah blah blah.
Not that I don't agree with some of his practices and suggestions, as those who are truly aligned with the land would hear, but I was drowning in full-throated white noise because of an inherent arrogance that runs like a spine throughout the book. I found this book as annoying as Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, which I reviewed here.
A soap-box for an entitled farmer, is how it sounded to my ears. Too much talk about profit, not enough about land stewardship.
Took me forever to read it, for obvious reasons.
Doubly disappointed because I first heard of Salatin by having read The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, whom I greatly admire. My review for that one can be read here.
I did emerge with a handful of pithy quotes, but suddenly it's not even worth bothering about.
What I heard: blah blah blah blah blah.
Not that I don't agree with some of his practices and suggestions, as those who are truly aligned with the land would hear, but I was drowning in full-throated white noise because of an inherent arrogance that runs like a spine throughout the book. I found this book as annoying as Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, which I reviewed here.
A soap-box for an entitled farmer, is how it sounded to my ears. Too much talk about profit, not enough about land stewardship.
Took me forever to read it, for obvious reasons.
Doubly disappointed because I first heard of Salatin by having read The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, whom I greatly admire. My review for that one can be read here.
I did emerge with a handful of pithy quotes, but suddenly it's not even worth bothering about.
January 5, 2012
I'm a big fan of Joel Salatin. I first came across him in the excellent documentary Food, Inc., then read more about his Polyface farm in The Omnivore's Dilemma. He's written several books; Folks, This Ain't Normal is his newest, and the only one I've read so far. I'll write my review in two sections, because I had two strong reactions to the book.
First, Joel Salatin makes farming seem like the most interesting thing in the world. His farm (and I am simplifying here) takes sunlight, turns it into grass that's eaten by cows who produce protein via milk and meat. His chickens eat the bugs out of the cow poop, and produce eggs. Pigs trample the cow poop mixed in with hay to create compost, which is used on the grass. Salatin has essentially created a closed system of food production that runs on sunlight, uses no drugs or chemicals, and creates incredibly healthy food. His work is both simple and profound. So as a book about the workings of Polyface Farm, this is great. I learned a ton about artisanal and heritage foods, as well as how difficult it is for small farmers and producers to get their products to market. Also, Salatin does a wonderful job demolishing the moral vanity of the "we're vegetarians/we only shop at Whole Foods/We only buy organic" crowd by describing the true costs associated with these choices. Bravo (and this is coming from a guy who probably fits into that particular group!)
Which brings me to my second reaction. Reading about the governmental regulations farmers like Salatin face makes me want to join a militia and revolt. The confluence between Big Ag, Big Pharma, and Big Government is staggering. The USDA essentially works for Monsanto, Tyson, and other massive business interests who use lobbyists to create a business climate that is deeply inimical to the needs of small farmers. It's no wonder people don't farm anymore: they, quite literally, are regulated out of business. The inconsistencies, contradictions, and ham-handedness of the government is remarkable. I found myself becoming quite angry as I read. Quite angry.
Another, related, part of the book that was disturbing was Salatin's discussion of the inheritance tax. Basically, if farmland is rezoned by some bureaucrat as commercial land, or as agricultural land (which is what it is, of course, but bear with me) instead of regular old land, the price of the land increases dramatically. Not only does this cause small farmers to face huge tax bills, but it makes farms--land rich, money poor--eligible for the inheritance tax. So imagine a situation where your parents buy five acres of land for $10,000 in the 1940s. Nothing special about it; just land. Some zipper head in the county offices decides that your parent's land is now commercial land, and it's worth $1,000,000 fifty years later. Sure, your parents could sell the land and make a tidy profit, but if they want you to inherit the land and continue farming...you need to come up some some ridiculous amount of money to pay the inheritance tax. Same land. Same farm. Big chunk to Uncle Sam to 'spread the wealth around' as a famous Marxist recently put it. Just reading about this made me want to take up arms.
This is an excellent and informative book about how food is produced (and not produced) in America. It is also an eye-opener with regard to how much control the government and big business want to have over what we eat. Each day that goes by makes me want to move far away from people and go live in the woods of Maine. Each day I realize how much freedom we have ceded to Washington in the name of things like security and equity. This book has certainly added fuel to that particular fire.
First, Joel Salatin makes farming seem like the most interesting thing in the world. His farm (and I am simplifying here) takes sunlight, turns it into grass that's eaten by cows who produce protein via milk and meat. His chickens eat the bugs out of the cow poop, and produce eggs. Pigs trample the cow poop mixed in with hay to create compost, which is used on the grass. Salatin has essentially created a closed system of food production that runs on sunlight, uses no drugs or chemicals, and creates incredibly healthy food. His work is both simple and profound. So as a book about the workings of Polyface Farm, this is great. I learned a ton about artisanal and heritage foods, as well as how difficult it is for small farmers and producers to get their products to market. Also, Salatin does a wonderful job demolishing the moral vanity of the "we're vegetarians/we only shop at Whole Foods/We only buy organic" crowd by describing the true costs associated with these choices. Bravo (and this is coming from a guy who probably fits into that particular group!)
Which brings me to my second reaction. Reading about the governmental regulations farmers like Salatin face makes me want to join a militia and revolt. The confluence between Big Ag, Big Pharma, and Big Government is staggering. The USDA essentially works for Monsanto, Tyson, and other massive business interests who use lobbyists to create a business climate that is deeply inimical to the needs of small farmers. It's no wonder people don't farm anymore: they, quite literally, are regulated out of business. The inconsistencies, contradictions, and ham-handedness of the government is remarkable. I found myself becoming quite angry as I read. Quite angry.
Another, related, part of the book that was disturbing was Salatin's discussion of the inheritance tax. Basically, if farmland is rezoned by some bureaucrat as commercial land, or as agricultural land (which is what it is, of course, but bear with me) instead of regular old land, the price of the land increases dramatically. Not only does this cause small farmers to face huge tax bills, but it makes farms--land rich, money poor--eligible for the inheritance tax. So imagine a situation where your parents buy five acres of land for $10,000 in the 1940s. Nothing special about it; just land. Some zipper head in the county offices decides that your parent's land is now commercial land, and it's worth $1,000,000 fifty years later. Sure, your parents could sell the land and make a tidy profit, but if they want you to inherit the land and continue farming...you need to come up some some ridiculous amount of money to pay the inheritance tax. Same land. Same farm. Big chunk to Uncle Sam to 'spread the wealth around' as a famous Marxist recently put it. Just reading about this made me want to take up arms.
This is an excellent and informative book about how food is produced (and not produced) in America. It is also an eye-opener with regard to how much control the government and big business want to have over what we eat. Each day that goes by makes me want to move far away from people and go live in the woods of Maine. Each day I realize how much freedom we have ceded to Washington in the name of things like security and equity. This book has certainly added fuel to that particular fire.
June 23, 2014
This is The Omnivore's Dilemma with a teaspoon of local yokel and a tablespoon of political swagger. Author Joel Salatin is a proud foodie libertarian, and if you sense an oxymoron in that pairing, you'll need to read his no-nonsense book to get the lowdown.
Yep. Joel wants to kick some ass. Mostly big government ass. Strangely enough, he finds himself allied with all the liberal Democrat foodies when it comes down to what we should be eating. It's the government that drives him mad. The "food police," as he calls them, who hide under the auspices of letters like FDA and USDA and FSIS and do their best to put little guys (read: your local farmer) out of business with onerous regulations and expensive licenses that only the big boys (Monsanto, Cargill, Tyson, et al) can afford.
How convenient. The very Big Food players who rotate employees and lawyers with the U.S. government in the name of protecting us. As Joel says repeatedly in this book: "Folks, this ain't normal."
Salatin is not only a farmer, he's a scientist who's done his homework on health, nutrition, and agriculture. As he points out, there are scientists and there are scientists. When the government lays out food rules in favor of Big Food, they always do it "in the name of science," but it's the same science that advocates genetic modification of food, irradiation of food, wholesale use of pesticides, herbicides, and gassing, cloning, additives, mass vaccinations and antibiotics, CAFOs, etc.
Right. Science in Big Food's back pocket. Scientists and lawyers who supposedly know more about food than your local farmer does. "Folks, this ain't normal."
And if you think having a Democrat in the White House whose wife is into health, nutrition, and gardening is of some comfort, think again. Salatin writes: "President Obama named Michael Taylor, the longtime Monsanto attorney who shepherded transgenic modification into the world, as his food czar. Taylor will be officially interpreting what the Food Modernization Act's demand for 'science-based' food requirements means. This phrase, brand-new in history, is used eleven times in the final law. Whose science will it be?"
In a word: Monsanto's. Oh. And President Obama's, whose selection for Sec. of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, is also in bed with Big Food and their bankrolled "scientists."
More vintage Salatin:
"Food safety is completely subjective. I don't think for a minute that most of what's in the supermarket is safe. But it's been deemed safe because it only kills you slowly. While thousands of people die due to unnatural food and nutrient-deprived food, the food police go after a cottage-industry cheesemaker because two people get diarrhea."
The chapters is this book run the gamut, from dissertations on composting toilets to down-and-dirty agronomy lessons to, yes, even Obamacare (stretching it, but it came with his Libertarian rant), so clearly you may enjoy some parts more than others. Still, Salatin's is an interesting voice. And an informative one. And certainly a lively one.
I may not agree with 100% of what Joel Salatin writes, but I agree with the vast majority, right down to the fact that libertarians and foodies make strange bedfellows who might just find good reason (before it's too late) join forces and defeat the well-heeled and entrenched dragons that besiege us from Washington.
If you care about food, you should give it a read.
Yep. Joel wants to kick some ass. Mostly big government ass. Strangely enough, he finds himself allied with all the liberal Democrat foodies when it comes down to what we should be eating. It's the government that drives him mad. The "food police," as he calls them, who hide under the auspices of letters like FDA and USDA and FSIS and do their best to put little guys (read: your local farmer) out of business with onerous regulations and expensive licenses that only the big boys (Monsanto, Cargill, Tyson, et al) can afford.
How convenient. The very Big Food players who rotate employees and lawyers with the U.S. government in the name of protecting us. As Joel says repeatedly in this book: "Folks, this ain't normal."
Salatin is not only a farmer, he's a scientist who's done his homework on health, nutrition, and agriculture. As he points out, there are scientists and there are scientists. When the government lays out food rules in favor of Big Food, they always do it "in the name of science," but it's the same science that advocates genetic modification of food, irradiation of food, wholesale use of pesticides, herbicides, and gassing, cloning, additives, mass vaccinations and antibiotics, CAFOs, etc.
Right. Science in Big Food's back pocket. Scientists and lawyers who supposedly know more about food than your local farmer does. "Folks, this ain't normal."
And if you think having a Democrat in the White House whose wife is into health, nutrition, and gardening is of some comfort, think again. Salatin writes: "President Obama named Michael Taylor, the longtime Monsanto attorney who shepherded transgenic modification into the world, as his food czar. Taylor will be officially interpreting what the Food Modernization Act's demand for 'science-based' food requirements means. This phrase, brand-new in history, is used eleven times in the final law. Whose science will it be?"
In a word: Monsanto's. Oh. And President Obama's, whose selection for Sec. of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, is also in bed with Big Food and their bankrolled "scientists."
More vintage Salatin:
"Food safety is completely subjective. I don't think for a minute that most of what's in the supermarket is safe. But it's been deemed safe because it only kills you slowly. While thousands of people die due to unnatural food and nutrient-deprived food, the food police go after a cottage-industry cheesemaker because two people get diarrhea."
The chapters is this book run the gamut, from dissertations on composting toilets to down-and-dirty agronomy lessons to, yes, even Obamacare (stretching it, but it came with his Libertarian rant), so clearly you may enjoy some parts more than others. Still, Salatin's is an interesting voice. And an informative one. And certainly a lively one.
I may not agree with 100% of what Joel Salatin writes, but I agree with the vast majority, right down to the fact that libertarians and foodies make strange bedfellows who might just find good reason (before it's too late) join forces and defeat the well-heeled and entrenched dragons that besiege us from Washington.
If you care about food, you should give it a read.
May 6, 2021
As someone who lived in South America once upon a time, who saw what life is like when food is LOCAL (little shops on every corner, people who rode big huge tricycles through the streets selling rabbit, milk, open air "ferias"/farmer's markets, etc.) and loved every minute of it, this book resonated with me.
Did you know that before 1946 there were no supermarkets? Well, that's what Joel Salatin says. I have yet to fact check it (and I need to feed my kids breakfast, so I can't right now, sorry).
I know now why I cannot stand big huge florescent light filled supermarkets with rows and rows of boxes. They confuse me. They are too big. I cannot stand the fact that our food travels all over the country and we don't know how it was made or who made it.
Stamp USDA approved on something and trust that it is safe. But really, the same people who call high fructose laden food *safe* deems farm fresh milk unsafe?
Ugh - my heart gets all pitter patter-y and frustrated when I think of the state of food in the world now.
So, I will write about something else that I learned from the book. It's a small tidbit, but it made an impression on me. Joel talked about teaching kids to work. He wondered why we have youth that is up in the middle of the night making trouble. He wrote about how the apprentices on his farm go to bed as soon as possible because they are so tired.
This is what I want to teach my children. There is value in good, old fashioned work. It is soul-satisfying to see something grow, to take care of an animal who happily runs up to the fence in the paddock to see you, to create something out of nothing. More than anything, I desire this for my children (and for myself), that we can make the most of our days as we work and learn together.
All in all, a good book. Check it out. It is full of common sense when it comes to what is "normal" in our food supply.
Did you know that before 1946 there were no supermarkets? Well, that's what Joel Salatin says. I have yet to fact check it (and I need to feed my kids breakfast, so I can't right now, sorry).
I know now why I cannot stand big huge florescent light filled supermarkets with rows and rows of boxes. They confuse me. They are too big. I cannot stand the fact that our food travels all over the country and we don't know how it was made or who made it.
Stamp USDA approved on something and trust that it is safe. But really, the same people who call high fructose laden food *safe* deems farm fresh milk unsafe?
Ugh - my heart gets all pitter patter-y and frustrated when I think of the state of food in the world now.
So, I will write about something else that I learned from the book. It's a small tidbit, but it made an impression on me. Joel talked about teaching kids to work. He wondered why we have youth that is up in the middle of the night making trouble. He wrote about how the apprentices on his farm go to bed as soon as possible because they are so tired.
This is what I want to teach my children. There is value in good, old fashioned work. It is soul-satisfying to see something grow, to take care of an animal who happily runs up to the fence in the paddock to see you, to create something out of nothing. More than anything, I desire this for my children (and for myself), that we can make the most of our days as we work and learn together.
All in all, a good book. Check it out. It is full of common sense when it comes to what is "normal" in our food supply.
July 17, 2025
Joel Salatin's book, Folks This Ain't Normal, does a good job at thinking how food, farming, and waste could be better handled in America. He lays out how we could be better stewards and advocates for Americans to have small homesteads to handle waste, feed themselves, and become more self-sufficient. Joel is a Christian, but I wouldn't say this is a Christian book, it's more of an environmental stewardship book.
At times, the book gets super technical or Joel gets super in the weeds of a topic. To be honest, I recommend skimming parts like that. There's some great content and ideas in the book, but also some sections that you may have to trudge through.
At times, the book gets super technical or Joel gets super in the weeds of a topic. To be honest, I recommend skimming parts like that. There's some great content and ideas in the book, but also some sections that you may have to trudge through.
November 8, 2011
This was a very interesting book. How is life different than it was a scant 80 to 100 years ago? Dramatically. People - particularly American people - are for the most part completely disconnected to their basic needs. Food, water, energy, heat -- all essential for life, are provided to us by some process we mostly don't understand. If we suddenly found ourselves without them, or the means to procure them, we would all literally die for lack of knowing how to get them ourselves. In a word, we are dependent. Not only is this not normal, it's downright dangerous.
Salatin uses good humor, some cutting sarcasm, but mostly gentle urging to explain to us the importance of getting back to our "umbilical" connection to the earth God gave us. And he offers advice on how to do it, beginning with making friends with your local farmer and knowing where your food comes from. Plant a garden, start a compost bin, join a CSA, learn how to make a cystern to collect and store rain water, learn how to can-- eat real food. These are all things that, if seriously pursued, can only help ourselves and our environment. Even if you're a died-in-the-wood city girl(or boy) like myself, there are things you can probably go out and do right now to make a contribution to normalcy. I started an herb planter in my kitchen this week. The seeds have sprouted and grown nearly three inches in a little over a week. (I feel better already!)
Salatin uses good humor, some cutting sarcasm, but mostly gentle urging to explain to us the importance of getting back to our "umbilical" connection to the earth God gave us. And he offers advice on how to do it, beginning with making friends with your local farmer and knowing where your food comes from. Plant a garden, start a compost bin, join a CSA, learn how to make a cystern to collect and store rain water, learn how to can-- eat real food. These are all things that, if seriously pursued, can only help ourselves and our environment. Even if you're a died-in-the-wood city girl(or boy) like myself, there are things you can probably go out and do right now to make a contribution to normalcy. I started an herb planter in my kitchen this week. The seeds have sprouted and grown nearly three inches in a little over a week. (I feel better already!)
November 7, 2017
Some good and worthwhile ideas that are overwhelmed by the authors curmudgeonly writing style. Want to be condescended to for 350 pages about how our society has gone wrong or that soy beans will make you effeminate? To paraphrase from Salatin "That ain't normal." Expect to read the title of this book at least once a chapter.
Out of the many digressions and condescension the two most glaring are ,first, the assertion that all men should know how to use a hammer and nail, but women don’t need to. Second, Salatin would target women at farmer’s markets because men are not observant enough.
Salatin also did not hire women interns for years out of fears of sexual assault litigation. He then admits that when this restriction was relaxed, applicant numbers dropped off. For his farm, where working conditions could be problematic, he makes sure at least three people worked together. For such a stalwart of prototyping and personal freedom, why didn’t he create such a system earlier and avoid the controversy?
Skip this and instead read some of the works Salatin references. Barbara Kingsolver Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or Eric Schlosser Fast Food Nation to name two.
Out of the many digressions and condescension the two most glaring are ,first, the assertion that all men should know how to use a hammer and nail, but women don’t need to. Second, Salatin would target women at farmer’s markets because men are not observant enough.
Salatin also did not hire women interns for years out of fears of sexual assault litigation. He then admits that when this restriction was relaxed, applicant numbers dropped off. For his farm, where working conditions could be problematic, he makes sure at least three people worked together. For such a stalwart of prototyping and personal freedom, why didn’t he create such a system earlier and avoid the controversy?
Skip this and instead read some of the works Salatin references. Barbara Kingsolver Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or Eric Schlosser Fast Food Nation to name two.
January 21, 2015
Joel Salatin is such an insufferable ass that I couldn't make it past page 50 of his book - which is a shame because I think he's probably right about how he does agriculture.
April 18, 2021
Once again, his cover photo and title fooled me. I sure thought this was going to be all about humanely raising chickens. It's not. The purpose of this book is to "awaken a thirst and hunger for some basic food and farming knowledge before...new age techno-subjects crowds out all of this historically normal knowledge." Salatin may agree with some of the things the left environmentalist agree with, but completely abstaining from meat is not the answer. Although a bit long-winded and even rambling at times, he will open your eyes to what's not so normal about our food system and point out things you can do to get closer to sustainability and normalcy. You'll learn a lot about the food police and the power they have been given over small farming businesses since the industrial age, only to find our food supply and our earth's living soil now in grave danger. Proof that their concern is not so much for the health of the people as it is for their power and paychecks.
The case against CAFO's: (p. 211-212)
They claim we need to feed the world, and this is the way Americans can do that, and do it with efficiency.
The reality is a house of cards waiting to collapse. Since CAFO's are so large, cheap fuel and energy costs are the ONLY way they can continue. As soon as energy costs return to normal again, and they will, it's all over.
1. Cattle are hauled in from all over the states.
2. Manure becomes a hazardous waste, so they fall into slurries through slats which have to then be hauled off farther and farther away, and to California to be used as fertilizer. They still manage to become overwhelmed and spill over and create runoffs that destroy lagoons and even whole communities.
3. As toxicity increases, the transportation necessary to sustain it increases.
4. Grains must be transported from farther and farther away because the region can't grow enough grains to feed the CAFO cattles.
5. Upon slaughtering, the finished product has to be shipped throughout the country and overseas because the region can't consume thatamount of meat.
What we don't see:
The square miles and "miles of land required to produce the grain, and the square miles of land to handle the manure generated by that facility. You don't see the pumps, augers, pipes, trucks, slurry lagoons, slurry spreaders, and trains bringing material in and hauling material out." (p. 212)
He expounds on some things that are NOT normal:
1. Kids spending their summers lounging around inside the house all day, only to expend their energy in the late after hours getting into trouble....whatever that may be...and the starting the process all over again. Being a night owl is not normal for humans. Teens used to be considered an asset, productive members of society. Now, they are considered a liability. Every parent should read the first chapter. I wish I had read this before raising my kids.
2. To eat with reckless abandon, without conscience, without knowledge. (p. 39) We are a nation more disconnected with our food and knowledge of where it comes from than ever in history. We scan a credit card, open a plastic bag, and nuke it in a microwave (p. 19).
3. Now, even rural country is eating the same canned and processed, nutrient deficient foods that inner city folks are eating, meaning they are now just as disconnected to food and its source.
4. Not to be prepared for any emergencies is not normal....weather, politics, economics, bioterrorism. Food security is not at the grocery store. It's not in the government. And it's not in the emergency services. It's not sustainable!!
5. UNPLUG! Men spending 20 hours a week on video games or Facebook is not normal. Neither are kids spending hours on end socializing on their phones through Facebook, chat, etc...
6. The amount of plastic and aluminum foil we use daily is not normal. If you have to, then use paper products. At least, that is biodegradable.
7. Long distance distribution now defines our food system...the 1500 miles from field to fork is NOT normal. Only 5% of the foods we consume is actually grown there.
8. The fear of taking risks, trying new innovative, sustainable ideas so much that the government has to make up laws to protect ourselves is NOT normal. We have become a society ruled by fear.
9. Not knowing how to cook in today's high techno-glitz kitchens...not only NOT normal but should be a crime. Historically, the kitchen has alwsys been the hub. Something was always roasting, baking, simmering, rising, etc...Today, even I don't want to be in my kitchen because then I have to do all that damn cleaning too. EXHAUSTING!!
10. Multisyllabic science-speak, unpronounceable lab concoctions on our food labels is NOT normal. (p. 101)
11. Food that does not parish in just a few days is NOT normal.
12. Feeding the soil reconfigured chemicals, such as NPK fertilizers, is NOT normal. As a gardener, or farmer, if you take care of the carbon (brown matter), hydrogen, and oxygen, the NPK (nitrogen, potassium, and ?) will take care of itself.
13. To treat water with such disdain as to make it illegal to even capture it in rain barrels, such as it is in Colorado, is NOT normal.
14. Sprawling corrals of beef lots, pig lots, chicken cages where 1000's upon 1000's are fed corn and soy to quickly fatten them up for the market. This is NOT normal.
I have read articles that have demonized cows as one great cause of greenhouse gases and how they leave behind such a large portion of earth's carbon footprint, polluting the shit out of it, and I believed it. Scientists have now developed "fake" meat that are beginning to sell in fast-food restaurants. They have also learned to grow meat in a lab from cells. But, according to Salatin, the properly grazed cattle restarts the juvenile growth phase in prairie grasses. By "pruning" it, the grasses are stimulated to greater solar activity, photosynthesis activity; otherwise, it becomes dormant and dies, creating CO2. Also, it is being fertilized naturally with their urine and poop. (p. 21) Anti-beefers refuse to differentiate the difference between that of industrial farming and eco-friendly pasture farming. Remember that agendas drive data, not the other way around. (p. 40)
Tillage crop farms, and gardens, is not a sustainable practice. Tilling burns out organic matter because it hyperoxygenates the soil and then isn't able to retain nitrogen. That's one reason the land needs to lay fallow every 7 years, like the Bible also says (Leviticus 25:4- "But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards."), but now more often because of our farming practices of using single GMO crops and the exhorbitant chemicals and synthetic fertilizers used. I wonder why the author doesn't mention this Bible verse or how he incorporates it into his farming practice?
For home gardens, to avoid having to till, mulch beds with grass clippings. That will slowly replenish the soil with nitrogen as it decomposes. This is what Salatin does in his home garden. (p. 21-22) I also have my compost pile that I can use on my gardens.
Job 12:7-8 - "But ask now the beasts, and they will teach you; ask the fowls of the air, and they will tell you: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto you."
You can learn a lot about the proper way to handle and raise animals, and how the earth restores itself, in turn how you should handle your garden, by watching. Whether a vegetable or animal, the sacrifice of its life is only sacred IF it had a life well lived. (p. 25)
By feeding chickens ALL kitchen scraps, this might eliminate the need for any grains at all, reducing the costs associated with it. If every household did this, "it would reduce the amount of land tilled, which would reduce erosion, which would free up more land to be covered in perennials, which would build soil, and ultimately stimulate springs to flow again" (p. 79) I didn't know chickens could live off of kitchen scraps alone. I could just use their poop from the coop to the compost pile to fertilize my garden beds each season. CLEAN OUT THE COOP!
At the end of every chapter are lists of ideas and things you can do to be a better steward of our earth:
1. Eat bioregionally. Learn to buy and eat in season fruits and vegetables
2. Buy local fruits and vegetables (farmers markets first, then supermarket)
3. Limit processed foods for two reasons:,They are deficient in nutrients and they are excessive in plastic waste.
4. Create and focus on an edible landscape.
5. If gardening, extend your garden season by growing brassicas, carrots, greens, etc...cold weather crops.
6. Build a solarium on south side of house to grow plants.
7. Preserve your own food in season by dehydrating, freezing, canning, pickling, etc....
8. Use recycle grocery bags.
9. Use reuseable tupperware for lunches, snacks for road trips. Instead of purchasing the Keto Snack packs, make your own.
10. Use the short thermos' for soups, hot or cold, potato salad even stays old
11. Turn off the TV or the cell phone (Facebook) and read.
12. Take a fast-food sabbatical.
13. Visit local farms instead of vacation trips.
14. Start a domestic hobby: quilting, knitting, carving, woodworking, repairing anything, etc...
15. Limit your video or Facebook time.
16. Eat more grass-fed beef
17. Learn how to dress game and prepare it.
18. Cook from scratch.
19. Make condiments from scratch: mayonnaise, ketchup, etc...
20. Make breads from non-GMO flours and other ingredients.
21. Prepare hearty soups and bisques often. Freeze some for rainy days.
22. Replace your parakeet with an indoor chicken. They're quieter, you can recycle all your kitchen scraps and get back an egg in return.
23. Get a vermicomposting kit and feed your kitchen scraps in return for nutritious worm fertilizer.
24. Purchase and consume only parishable foods. If not sure, set it out on the counter for a couple of days and if it doesn't change in appearance, taste, odor, or texture, you've just wasted your money on dead stuff. Don't buy it again. Dead stuff (irradiated or what-have-you) doesn't have anything left to give, to create new cells, new flesh, new bones.
25. Compost all things that will rot, and stop filling up landfill with biomass.
26. Reduce your energy use by growing your own food, build a solarium on the south side of the house, entrtain at your own home...no need to go travelling all the time.
27. Capture rain water in barrels for watering plants. All homes should have a cistern to capture rain from gutters coming off the roof.
28. Use grey water for flushing toilets...a great idea but not financially possible for us. Reroute pupes to flush from your large cistern that collects water from roof runoff.
29. Patronize 100% grass-based herbivores: beef, dairy, lamb, bidon, elk, etc...to support soil building practices on earth.
30. Clear unwanted brush, dying & unwanted twisted trees from forests. This allows new saplings to flourish, which produce more oxygen and takes in more carbon than old, dying trees.
31. Add deep bedding (carbonaceous diaper) to chicken coop, pig pens, or barns to sop up and break down animal poop.
32. Do NOT purchase chicken, meat, or pork from animals grown in CAFOs.
33. Look at your expenditures and see what is unnecessary. Add that amount to your organic foods budget.
34. When someone says rmthey can't afford good organic foods, look around their house for alvohol, coffee, tobacco, soda, frozen dinners, snacks, flat screen TV, iPods, tattoos, etc...
35. To help keep small business afloat, shop the under-dog, even if it means paying more.
America's food companies only care about their bottom line. They could care less about your health. It's about taste manipulation, shelf-life, and cheaper products. Period! In fact, in 2010, Obama hired Michael Taylor, a longtime Monsanto attorney who helped bring in the transgenic modigication of seeds, as his food czar...a brand new position inside the government. (p. 342)
The bottom line? Vote with your food dollar because "...with EVERY bite, we are either healing or hurting our neighbors, the soil, and ultimately the world" (p. 91) and our own health. Organic farms are not subsidized financially as the big CAFO farms or farms in the back pockets of bog brother, growing Monsanto seeds. The higher prices for organics reflect the "true" cost of growi g that food and labor costs.
Polyface farm has on their reusable bags: "Healing the Planet One Bite at a Time". I should make a small wooden kitchen sign like this as a reminder.
The case against CAFO's: (p. 211-212)
They claim we need to feed the world, and this is the way Americans can do that, and do it with efficiency.
The reality is a house of cards waiting to collapse. Since CAFO's are so large, cheap fuel and energy costs are the ONLY way they can continue. As soon as energy costs return to normal again, and they will, it's all over.
1. Cattle are hauled in from all over the states.
2. Manure becomes a hazardous waste, so they fall into slurries through slats which have to then be hauled off farther and farther away, and to California to be used as fertilizer. They still manage to become overwhelmed and spill over and create runoffs that destroy lagoons and even whole communities.
3. As toxicity increases, the transportation necessary to sustain it increases.
4. Grains must be transported from farther and farther away because the region can't grow enough grains to feed the CAFO cattles.
5. Upon slaughtering, the finished product has to be shipped throughout the country and overseas because the region can't consume thatamount of meat.
What we don't see:
The square miles and "miles of land required to produce the grain, and the square miles of land to handle the manure generated by that facility. You don't see the pumps, augers, pipes, trucks, slurry lagoons, slurry spreaders, and trains bringing material in and hauling material out." (p. 212)
He expounds on some things that are NOT normal:
1. Kids spending their summers lounging around inside the house all day, only to expend their energy in the late after hours getting into trouble....whatever that may be...and the starting the process all over again. Being a night owl is not normal for humans. Teens used to be considered an asset, productive members of society. Now, they are considered a liability. Every parent should read the first chapter. I wish I had read this before raising my kids.
2. To eat with reckless abandon, without conscience, without knowledge. (p. 39) We are a nation more disconnected with our food and knowledge of where it comes from than ever in history. We scan a credit card, open a plastic bag, and nuke it in a microwave (p. 19).
3. Now, even rural country is eating the same canned and processed, nutrient deficient foods that inner city folks are eating, meaning they are now just as disconnected to food and its source.
4. Not to be prepared for any emergencies is not normal....weather, politics, economics, bioterrorism. Food security is not at the grocery store. It's not in the government. And it's not in the emergency services. It's not sustainable!!
5. UNPLUG! Men spending 20 hours a week on video games or Facebook is not normal. Neither are kids spending hours on end socializing on their phones through Facebook, chat, etc...
6. The amount of plastic and aluminum foil we use daily is not normal. If you have to, then use paper products. At least, that is biodegradable.
7. Long distance distribution now defines our food system...the 1500 miles from field to fork is NOT normal. Only 5% of the foods we consume is actually grown there.
8. The fear of taking risks, trying new innovative, sustainable ideas so much that the government has to make up laws to protect ourselves is NOT normal. We have become a society ruled by fear.
9. Not knowing how to cook in today's high techno-glitz kitchens...not only NOT normal but should be a crime. Historically, the kitchen has alwsys been the hub. Something was always roasting, baking, simmering, rising, etc...Today, even I don't want to be in my kitchen because then I have to do all that damn cleaning too. EXHAUSTING!!
10. Multisyllabic science-speak, unpronounceable lab concoctions on our food labels is NOT normal. (p. 101)
11. Food that does not parish in just a few days is NOT normal.
12. Feeding the soil reconfigured chemicals, such as NPK fertilizers, is NOT normal. As a gardener, or farmer, if you take care of the carbon (brown matter), hydrogen, and oxygen, the NPK (nitrogen, potassium, and ?) will take care of itself.
13. To treat water with such disdain as to make it illegal to even capture it in rain barrels, such as it is in Colorado, is NOT normal.
14. Sprawling corrals of beef lots, pig lots, chicken cages where 1000's upon 1000's are fed corn and soy to quickly fatten them up for the market. This is NOT normal.
I have read articles that have demonized cows as one great cause of greenhouse gases and how they leave behind such a large portion of earth's carbon footprint, polluting the shit out of it, and I believed it. Scientists have now developed "fake" meat that are beginning to sell in fast-food restaurants. They have also learned to grow meat in a lab from cells. But, according to Salatin, the properly grazed cattle restarts the juvenile growth phase in prairie grasses. By "pruning" it, the grasses are stimulated to greater solar activity, photosynthesis activity; otherwise, it becomes dormant and dies, creating CO2. Also, it is being fertilized naturally with their urine and poop. (p. 21) Anti-beefers refuse to differentiate the difference between that of industrial farming and eco-friendly pasture farming. Remember that agendas drive data, not the other way around. (p. 40)
Tillage crop farms, and gardens, is not a sustainable practice. Tilling burns out organic matter because it hyperoxygenates the soil and then isn't able to retain nitrogen. That's one reason the land needs to lay fallow every 7 years, like the Bible also says (Leviticus 25:4- "But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards."), but now more often because of our farming practices of using single GMO crops and the exhorbitant chemicals and synthetic fertilizers used. I wonder why the author doesn't mention this Bible verse or how he incorporates it into his farming practice?
For home gardens, to avoid having to till, mulch beds with grass clippings. That will slowly replenish the soil with nitrogen as it decomposes. This is what Salatin does in his home garden. (p. 21-22) I also have my compost pile that I can use on my gardens.
Job 12:7-8 - "But ask now the beasts, and they will teach you; ask the fowls of the air, and they will tell you: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto you."
You can learn a lot about the proper way to handle and raise animals, and how the earth restores itself, in turn how you should handle your garden, by watching. Whether a vegetable or animal, the sacrifice of its life is only sacred IF it had a life well lived. (p. 25)
By feeding chickens ALL kitchen scraps, this might eliminate the need for any grains at all, reducing the costs associated with it. If every household did this, "it would reduce the amount of land tilled, which would reduce erosion, which would free up more land to be covered in perennials, which would build soil, and ultimately stimulate springs to flow again" (p. 79) I didn't know chickens could live off of kitchen scraps alone. I could just use their poop from the coop to the compost pile to fertilize my garden beds each season. CLEAN OUT THE COOP!
At the end of every chapter are lists of ideas and things you can do to be a better steward of our earth:
1. Eat bioregionally. Learn to buy and eat in season fruits and vegetables
2. Buy local fruits and vegetables (farmers markets first, then supermarket)
3. Limit processed foods for two reasons:,They are deficient in nutrients and they are excessive in plastic waste.
4. Create and focus on an edible landscape.
5. If gardening, extend your garden season by growing brassicas, carrots, greens, etc...cold weather crops.
6. Build a solarium on south side of house to grow plants.
7. Preserve your own food in season by dehydrating, freezing, canning, pickling, etc....
8. Use recycle grocery bags.
9. Use reuseable tupperware for lunches, snacks for road trips. Instead of purchasing the Keto Snack packs, make your own.
10. Use the short thermos' for soups, hot or cold, potato salad even stays old
11. Turn off the TV or the cell phone (Facebook) and read.
12. Take a fast-food sabbatical.
13. Visit local farms instead of vacation trips.
14. Start a domestic hobby: quilting, knitting, carving, woodworking, repairing anything, etc...
15. Limit your video or Facebook time.
16. Eat more grass-fed beef
17. Learn how to dress game and prepare it.
18. Cook from scratch.
19. Make condiments from scratch: mayonnaise, ketchup, etc...
20. Make breads from non-GMO flours and other ingredients.
21. Prepare hearty soups and bisques often. Freeze some for rainy days.
22. Replace your parakeet with an indoor chicken. They're quieter, you can recycle all your kitchen scraps and get back an egg in return.
23. Get a vermicomposting kit and feed your kitchen scraps in return for nutritious worm fertilizer.
24. Purchase and consume only parishable foods. If not sure, set it out on the counter for a couple of days and if it doesn't change in appearance, taste, odor, or texture, you've just wasted your money on dead stuff. Don't buy it again. Dead stuff (irradiated or what-have-you) doesn't have anything left to give, to create new cells, new flesh, new bones.
25. Compost all things that will rot, and stop filling up landfill with biomass.
26. Reduce your energy use by growing your own food, build a solarium on the south side of the house, entrtain at your own home...no need to go travelling all the time.
27. Capture rain water in barrels for watering plants. All homes should have a cistern to capture rain from gutters coming off the roof.
28. Use grey water for flushing toilets...a great idea but not financially possible for us. Reroute pupes to flush from your large cistern that collects water from roof runoff.
29. Patronize 100% grass-based herbivores: beef, dairy, lamb, bidon, elk, etc...to support soil building practices on earth.
30. Clear unwanted brush, dying & unwanted twisted trees from forests. This allows new saplings to flourish, which produce more oxygen and takes in more carbon than old, dying trees.
31. Add deep bedding (carbonaceous diaper) to chicken coop, pig pens, or barns to sop up and break down animal poop.
32. Do NOT purchase chicken, meat, or pork from animals grown in CAFOs.
33. Look at your expenditures and see what is unnecessary. Add that amount to your organic foods budget.
34. When someone says rmthey can't afford good organic foods, look around their house for alvohol, coffee, tobacco, soda, frozen dinners, snacks, flat screen TV, iPods, tattoos, etc...
35. To help keep small business afloat, shop the under-dog, even if it means paying more.
America's food companies only care about their bottom line. They could care less about your health. It's about taste manipulation, shelf-life, and cheaper products. Period! In fact, in 2010, Obama hired Michael Taylor, a longtime Monsanto attorney who helped bring in the transgenic modigication of seeds, as his food czar...a brand new position inside the government. (p. 342)
The bottom line? Vote with your food dollar because "...with EVERY bite, we are either healing or hurting our neighbors, the soil, and ultimately the world" (p. 91) and our own health. Organic farms are not subsidized financially as the big CAFO farms or farms in the back pockets of bog brother, growing Monsanto seeds. The higher prices for organics reflect the "true" cost of growi g that food and labor costs.
Polyface farm has on their reusable bags: "Healing the Planet One Bite at a Time". I should make a small wooden kitchen sign like this as a reminder.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 7, 2024
No time to comment now, but I loved reading this book.
May 11, 2021
Frustratingly wonderful (albeit a lot of opinion), I’d recommend anyone who eats food to read this book.
August 29, 2015
I first read about Joel Salatin in Michael Pollan's, "Omnivore's Dilemma," and my impression from Pollan was that this guy would give the farmer's perspective on sustainability. Well, he delivered on that aspect. Unfortunately, his continued usage of the hook, "folks, that ain't normal" began to grate on me.
I'm not sure why this repetition of such a cliched declaration ever escaped the editor's pen, but it did. And what may have come off as folksy, squeaky intonation a la Jeff Foxworthy - imagine "you might be a redneck if..." - coupled with the hillbilly notion that city folk, liberals and poor people are folks of the 'other' variety and all Salatin's wisdom begins to lose its luster. Despite his efforts, this guy is no Mark Twain.
While I admire Salatin's savvy regarding sustainable farming, I can't ever see myself sitting down to a cup of coffee with him, because of his smarmy digs at people who are anything other than "country." While he describes himself as a libertarian of the Jeffersonian variety, his ideals are way right of center despite great effort to distance himself from conservatives.
I really want to like Salatin, but his words are too inflammatory, too laced with rage against the government, and anyone who is not like him. This Bob Jones University graduate describes himself as a suit-wearing presenter whenever he shows up for presentations and public talks, ostensibly so that people don't draw the wrong conclusion that he is aa bumpkin/uneducated idiot.
Nonetheless, Joel Salatin reminds me of Abe Lincolin's admonition that it is better to keep your mouth shut so that no one thinks you are a fool rather to open your mouth, thereby removing all doubt. Judging from some of his revelations, like this gem, "I've got news for you, trees don't grow in hardware stores." - he ought to ditch the suit. That kind of thinking sprouts from a head under a straw hat.
There are times when Salatin's ruminations regarding sustainability make so much sense. However, when he peppers such sage advice with rants against government regulations that he does not agree with, or liberals who,"want to raise taxes so they can give it away" to the poor, the power in his message wanes, and his rhetoric becomes as parched and over-used as the soil that he laments local sourcing owing to commercial scale farming practices - where, 'just ain't normal... becomes the clarion call for the middle-aged pissed off, scared, country-fried WASP; the same variety whose sentiments are echoed by the FAUX cable news network blowhards.
My suggestion is that you read Barbara Kingsolver's, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and Michael Pollan's, "Omnivore's Dilemma" because they cover the same material, devoid of religiosity, and nativist, clannish bullshit.
I'm not sure why this repetition of such a cliched declaration ever escaped the editor's pen, but it did. And what may have come off as folksy, squeaky intonation a la Jeff Foxworthy - imagine "you might be a redneck if..." - coupled with the hillbilly notion that city folk, liberals and poor people are folks of the 'other' variety and all Salatin's wisdom begins to lose its luster. Despite his efforts, this guy is no Mark Twain.
While I admire Salatin's savvy regarding sustainable farming, I can't ever see myself sitting down to a cup of coffee with him, because of his smarmy digs at people who are anything other than "country." While he describes himself as a libertarian of the Jeffersonian variety, his ideals are way right of center despite great effort to distance himself from conservatives.
I really want to like Salatin, but his words are too inflammatory, too laced with rage against the government, and anyone who is not like him. This Bob Jones University graduate describes himself as a suit-wearing presenter whenever he shows up for presentations and public talks, ostensibly so that people don't draw the wrong conclusion that he is aa bumpkin/uneducated idiot.
Nonetheless, Joel Salatin reminds me of Abe Lincolin's admonition that it is better to keep your mouth shut so that no one thinks you are a fool rather to open your mouth, thereby removing all doubt. Judging from some of his revelations, like this gem, "I've got news for you, trees don't grow in hardware stores." - he ought to ditch the suit. That kind of thinking sprouts from a head under a straw hat.
There are times when Salatin's ruminations regarding sustainability make so much sense. However, when he peppers such sage advice with rants against government regulations that he does not agree with, or liberals who,"want to raise taxes so they can give it away" to the poor, the power in his message wanes, and his rhetoric becomes as parched and over-used as the soil that he laments local sourcing owing to commercial scale farming practices - where, 'just ain't normal... becomes the clarion call for the middle-aged pissed off, scared, country-fried WASP; the same variety whose sentiments are echoed by the FAUX cable news network blowhards.
My suggestion is that you read Barbara Kingsolver's, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and Michael Pollan's, "Omnivore's Dilemma" because they cover the same material, devoid of religiosity, and nativist, clannish bullshit.
May 27, 2016
Joel Salatin is an icon of the sustainable agriculture movement. His Polyface Farm enjoys international renown and Salatin is in great demand as a speaker and educator. He is also quite personable and down-to-earth, having not let his celebrity go to his head.
If you have a chance to listen to this book on audio, I highly recommend doing so. Saladin narrates it himself and his irascible humor comes through so clearly in the recording that for once, I think the audio book is at least as good as the print text--not a claim I make for many non-fiction books.
Now, I recommend all of Salatin's books, even for non-farming people. He has earned through hard work a great deal of insight into farming, animals, ecology, and economy. This book, however, is particularly good because he addresses such a wide variety of topics, all linked by the theme that our culture has strayed from what is "normal" (meaning sustainable and healthy). He is by no means a Luddite, but he definitely takes issue with a lot of the core values (or lack thereof) in modern American society. Because he covers so many different topics in these essays, there's something of interest for everyone here. And because he does such a good job of linking apparently diverse subjects, you'll likely find out you're interested in things you didn't think you would be.
A word of caution: approach this book with an open mind and be willing to listen to what Salatin says even when you disagree with him. And you will disagree with him more than once. Saladin is an independent thinker and does not easily fit any mold. He is a conservative Christian, Libertarian, Eco-warrior farmer who expresses himself bluntly and without apology. He also has a great sense of humor, a deep humanity, and a willingness to learn from others and admit his mistakes.
This book is great fun to read and full of fascinating stories and great information. It will make you laugh, make you angry, and inspire you to think seriously about how you live and what you value.
If you have a chance to listen to this book on audio, I highly recommend doing so. Saladin narrates it himself and his irascible humor comes through so clearly in the recording that for once, I think the audio book is at least as good as the print text--not a claim I make for many non-fiction books.
Now, I recommend all of Salatin's books, even for non-farming people. He has earned through hard work a great deal of insight into farming, animals, ecology, and economy. This book, however, is particularly good because he addresses such a wide variety of topics, all linked by the theme that our culture has strayed from what is "normal" (meaning sustainable and healthy). He is by no means a Luddite, but he definitely takes issue with a lot of the core values (or lack thereof) in modern American society. Because he covers so many different topics in these essays, there's something of interest for everyone here. And because he does such a good job of linking apparently diverse subjects, you'll likely find out you're interested in things you didn't think you would be.
A word of caution: approach this book with an open mind and be willing to listen to what Salatin says even when you disagree with him. And you will disagree with him more than once. Saladin is an independent thinker and does not easily fit any mold. He is a conservative Christian, Libertarian, Eco-warrior farmer who expresses himself bluntly and without apology. He also has a great sense of humor, a deep humanity, and a willingness to learn from others and admit his mistakes.
This book is great fun to read and full of fascinating stories and great information. It will make you laugh, make you angry, and inspire you to think seriously about how you live and what you value.
June 30, 2013
You'd have to read whole lot of books to get the volume of information Joel packs into this book--I know, I think I've read most of them. Get past what so many other reviewers' described as his rant, and you'll see he's years ahead of many other writers (including the eloquent Michael Pollan who is about 5 years behind Joel's thought, but is nonetheless an incredible read). No surprise of course, Joel and his family have been living this way for a long time. Like Will Allen, his farming practices came about because he was cash poor and had to learn to get out of the way and let nature do the work. Let's hope we can enlist a few hundred thousand more farmers to follow Joel and Will as well as millions of people willing to pay more for their life giving food. Changing our farming practices is--without question--the single best way to restore the earth. No combination of biotech, chemicals or industrial machinery can feed a growing population as well as they can.
Be sure to get the audiobook version. Joel reads it himself, so instead of imaging his tone, you can hear it. The advantage of the audiobook is that you can simultaneously do some of the things he recommends (gardening, cooking, etc.) while listening.
Be sure to get the audiobook version. Joel reads it himself, so instead of imaging his tone, you can hear it. The advantage of the audiobook is that you can simultaneously do some of the things he recommends (gardening, cooking, etc.) while listening.
September 8, 2013
This was a fabulous book, though I have mixed emotions about some of the topics covered. I came across Salatin's work by way of a TED Talk given by Michael Pollan (author of "In Defense of Food"). Salatin is a permaculture (worth looking up on Wikipedia) farmer of Polyface Farm in Virginia. He has come up against numerous roadblocks to what he terms more normal ways of living, eating, and producing food. He provides a comparison of how current North Americans generally think of food, water, energy, housing, government, etc. with how they have historically been viewed by human populations throughout time and by Americans even in the last 100 years.
The message of this book is piercing and urgent. It is never comfortable to be under the microscope, and reading this book is no different. Many of the issues raised are systemic, and though he doesn't claim to have all the answers, each chapter includes practical suggestions. I cannot agree with everything he presents. I can, however, empathize with the passion and heart with which he lives, farms, and writes. More people need such passion and a creative and restorative outlet for it. I'm a huge fan of his family's work at Polyface and this book.
The message of this book is piercing and urgent. It is never comfortable to be under the microscope, and reading this book is no different. Many of the issues raised are systemic, and though he doesn't claim to have all the answers, each chapter includes practical suggestions. I cannot agree with everything he presents. I can, however, empathize with the passion and heart with which he lives, farms, and writes. More people need such passion and a creative and restorative outlet for it. I'm a huge fan of his family's work at Polyface and this book.
July 28, 2014
Mr Salatin has developed some excellent methods for sustainable farming, most of which is so scalable, I'm able to make use of his ideas in my own back yard to keep 2 (yes, just two) urban hens happy. An excellent, entertaining read about thinking outside the box.
Somebody should probably tell him the installation of rainwater tanks in Australian urban areas only started in the last few years,and is by no means widespread in every city. As recently as 13 years ago, it was difficult even to install rainwater divertors to gutters in urban South Australia because there was no precedent to get building compliance for it.
For me, it's little factual exaggerations like the above which cause me to regard Mr Salatin as a somewhat "fringe" personality, even while I find his visionary, self-tested ideas on farming and living extremely thought provoking and practicable.
Still, this is a must for every foodie, veggie grower and "lifestyle" farmer, regardless of whether you practice your passion in your urban backyard, or on a multi-acre farm block.
Somebody should probably tell him the installation of rainwater tanks in Australian urban areas only started in the last few years,and is by no means widespread in every city. As recently as 13 years ago, it was difficult even to install rainwater divertors to gutters in urban South Australia because there was no precedent to get building compliance for it.
For me, it's little factual exaggerations like the above which cause me to regard Mr Salatin as a somewhat "fringe" personality, even while I find his visionary, self-tested ideas on farming and living extremely thought provoking and practicable.
Still, this is a must for every foodie, veggie grower and "lifestyle" farmer, regardless of whether you practice your passion in your urban backyard, or on a multi-acre farm block.
January 9, 2012
This just feels like the wrong book at the wrong time. If you want to be lectured at for 300-some pages, go for it. Sure, he can be humorous; but he seems interested in packing in so many anecdotes and pieces of farming knowledge that the jokes seem rushed and flat. And much of what he is trying to point out has at this time already been renewed as common wisdom, while the book has a tone of "look what I discovered!"
A good amount of what he has to say is surely correct, and has a certain wisdom to it. And I definitely respect Salatin's experience. But in terms of delivery, I'd rather read some Wendell Berry matched with a little Michael Pollan and followed by some time with a real how-to homesteading manual.
A good amount of what he has to say is surely correct, and has a certain wisdom to it. And I definitely respect Salatin's experience. But in terms of delivery, I'd rather read some Wendell Berry matched with a little Michael Pollan and followed by some time with a real how-to homesteading manual.
December 29, 2020
Joel Salatin has a lot to say and we need to listen! He is not saying everyone should become farmers (although more should) but he is saying that everyone should be doing something to help regenerate the earth. Small steps would go a long way and he gives very simple and practical steps for the average person.
He can be extreme at times, but this is an extreme issue. Have you have met a local farmer that is producing real food? Their task is insurmountable and he’s been fighting for that goal for over fifty years. I appreciate both his humor and intensity as he does it.
I’m thankful for people like Joel who live with real integrity in their work and thoughtfulness about their purpose. This was an eye-opening and challenging read!
He can be extreme at times, but this is an extreme issue. Have you have met a local farmer that is producing real food? Their task is insurmountable and he’s been fighting for that goal for over fifty years. I appreciate both his humor and intensity as he does it.
I’m thankful for people like Joel who live with real integrity in their work and thoughtfulness about their purpose. This was an eye-opening and challenging read!
April 15, 2012
As well as an informational book about agriculture both large & small and nutrition, it is also a call to action. Many themes are embedded in this book not the least of which is 'how do we take back our autonomy from the government that purports to know what we should eat?'
This books educates and challenges. Joel Salatin has a sharp wit and an even sharper tongue; he does not hold back. This is not a book for the person who likes the status quo; this is a book for one who wants to know what is really happening with food & government and, more importantly, how we can manage what goes into our own bodies.
One key phrase: CSA, Community Supported Agriculture.
This books educates and challenges. Joel Salatin has a sharp wit and an even sharper tongue; he does not hold back. This is not a book for the person who likes the status quo; this is a book for one who wants to know what is really happening with food & government and, more importantly, how we can manage what goes into our own bodies.
One key phrase: CSA, Community Supported Agriculture.
June 22, 2016
I'm about 5 years behind on my book reviews, but I just couldn't let this one pass without giving it five stars and a few words. I hate to say that any book is "important", because it just sounds so la-di-da pretentious, but the truth is that, whether he meant to or not, Salatin has written a book that explains what's going on in our American psyche - a vague uneasiness, a feeling of perplexity, of anxiety about how we live. We yell for "change" because we know something's wrong, but - what if we're hollering for the wrong reasons? What if what we really need is not more, but better...
May 9, 2012
I'm completely onboard with the premise that as a society we are too removed from the process of growing, raising and producing food. The work that it takes to prepare and plant and the time and care to raise healthy animals, most people have no experience. I miss planting and canning and talking about planting. I digress. I just didn't appreciate the preachy tone.
June 26, 2013
This should be a must read for everyone who eats! ;) First time I read it, but this time I listened on audio book, which was even better! It is read by the author which really added to the experience.
June 16, 2012
This book should be required reading for everyone who eats! Joel for President... or at the very least head of the US Dept of Ag. :)
December 23, 2024
3.5 stars
Joel Salatin is a farmer (who actually lives not far from me) who has become a bit of a celebrity for the ways he is challenging societal norms over food and finding innovative ways to farm responsibly. "Folks, This Ain't Normal" is essentially an extended rant of why modern America's culture of farming and food is an historical anomaly, i.e. it "ain't normal."
Lots of mixed feelings on this book.
On the one hand, I love what Joel Salatin is doing on his farm, and his writing in many ways is reminiscent of Wendell Berry, Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver and other food writers I admire. I think he makes a lot of good points, and he especially sheds a light on how the status quo has stacked the deck against small farms and independent food producers, much of which was news to me.
On the other hand, Salatin's tone is frankly kind of annoying much of the time. It struck me how much of what he says is very similar to Wendell Berry, but whereas Berry comes across as prophetic and wise, Salatin comes across as self-righteous and angry. Also, his idea of citing sources is often "my mechanic told me..." or "I heard somewhere once..." which doesn't do him any favors in establishing his credibility.
Overall, I would recommend this book to fans of the other authors I mentioned. After all, he did manage to further convict me about my eating practices and make me want to support local farmers more, which is what I love about this genre. Just know that his strong opinions are probably going to evoke some strong opinions in you as well.
Joel Salatin is a farmer (who actually lives not far from me) who has become a bit of a celebrity for the ways he is challenging societal norms over food and finding innovative ways to farm responsibly. "Folks, This Ain't Normal" is essentially an extended rant of why modern America's culture of farming and food is an historical anomaly, i.e. it "ain't normal."
Lots of mixed feelings on this book.
On the one hand, I love what Joel Salatin is doing on his farm, and his writing in many ways is reminiscent of Wendell Berry, Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver and other food writers I admire. I think he makes a lot of good points, and he especially sheds a light on how the status quo has stacked the deck against small farms and independent food producers, much of which was news to me.
On the other hand, Salatin's tone is frankly kind of annoying much of the time. It struck me how much of what he says is very similar to Wendell Berry, but whereas Berry comes across as prophetic and wise, Salatin comes across as self-righteous and angry. Also, his idea of citing sources is often "my mechanic told me..." or "I heard somewhere once..." which doesn't do him any favors in establishing his credibility.
Overall, I would recommend this book to fans of the other authors I mentioned. After all, he did manage to further convict me about my eating practices and make me want to support local farmers more, which is what I love about this genre. Just know that his strong opinions are probably going to evoke some strong opinions in you as well.
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August 26, 2017I was excited to read this, but my excitement quickly faded. In all honesty, it was too horribly depressing to finish. If I had a do-over button, I'd go back and live the way Salatin wants me to, and the way I've always wanted to, but instead I have sugar-addicted, technology addicted, children, who rarely do chores, and oh - I can't grow a damn thing. Even my windowboxes die a sad death. I bought the same starter cabbage plants my neighbor did (we literally got them at the same farm): her's sprouted to the size of Volkswagen bugs, mine died right in front of my eyes as I watered the soil with my disappointed tears. The only thing I've been able to not kill in my yard is roses, and I'm pretty sure man cannot live on roses alone. While the inner-me wants to be a frontier, prairie girl, the practical side of me knows all I can do is buy other people's food, smack the phones out of my kid's hands once in a while, bemoan living in the city, and avoid too many books like this well-meaning one, which made me want to crawl in a organic, manure rich, nutrient laden hole and die quietly.
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