Forward: An Interview with Joel Salatin

There's a lot to be said about our food industry, and those picturesque landscapes printed on shrink-wrapped packages of meat don't even begin to tell the whole story.  However, questions are beginning to fly, ones that need answers.  The voice of the people is growing ever louder, demanding the truth, as we drive full speed further away from the link to our food.  Many have found the answers, although perhaps to their distaste.  Yet one man may possibly understand the problems we face with our food more than any other, Joel Salatin. if you haven't heard of him before, he has been running his family farm Polyface Farms, providing real food from happy animals to local only customers.  Guardian.co.uk did an interview with Joel that's worth a read.

Salatin explains. "What happens is all these things we're seeing – campylobacter, E coli, mad cow, listeria, salmonella, that weren't even in the lexicon 30 years ago – that is the industrial paradigm exceeding its efficiency. So these Latin squiggly words that we're learning to say – bovine spongiform encephalopathy – are nature's language screaming to us: ENOUGH! And the question then is: what will it take for us to listen? And my contention is that Wall Street is still wearing conquistador mentality and uniforms, and nobody is listening to the pleadings of nature saying: 'Enough.'"

The interview is a really good summary of what is an amazing success story.  However, to get a more in-depth story I strongly recommend the book: The Omnivore's Dilemma.  Joel has written a ton of books explaining his operation.  he is also featured, in a sense, in the movie Food Inc. which you can watch at your pleasure here.