Joel Salatin | |
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Born | February 24, 1957 |
Occupation(s) | farmer, lecturer, and author |
Joel F. Salatin (born February 24, 1957) 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. [1]
Salatin's father worked for a major petroleum company, Texas Oil, using his earnings to purchase a 1,000-acre farm in Venezuela. Salatin describes in his book You Can Farm how his family were involved in “wildcat oil drilling,” and after “clearing some of the jungle” to establish a chicken and dairy farm, "in a totally free market…without government regulations” they quickly “cornered the poultry market.” [2] The family left Venezuela in 1959 following the 1958 election of President Rómulo Betancourt who instituted a program to redistribute land. [3]
Influenced by their Biblical understanding of earth stewardship and J. I. Rodale, Salatin's parents, William and Lucille, relocated and purchased a farm in the Shenandoah Valley in 1961 and began restoring its land. [4] [5] In high school, Salatin began his own business selling rabbits, eggs, butter and chicken from the farm at the Staunton Curb Market. [4] He then attended Bob Jones University where he majored in English and was a student leader, graduating in 1979. [6] [7]
Salatin married his childhood sweetheart Teresa in 1980 and became a feature writer at the Staunton, Virginia, newspaper, The News Leader , where he had worked earlier typing obituaries and police reports. [8] [4]
Polyface Farm is a 550-acre (220-hectare) farm in Swoope, Virginia. The farmhouse was built in 1750 and added on throughout the years. It was purchased by the Salatins in 1961. Tiring of writing for the newspaper, Salatin decided to try farming full-time. Each year, he revised his organic farming techniques, which have low overhead and equipment costs, and the farm began to turn a profit. The farm grosses $350,000 and is deemed a commercial farm by the United States Department of Agriculture. [1]
Salatin's philosophy of farming emphasizes healthy grass on which animals can thrive in a symbiotic cycle of feeding. Cows are moved from one pasture to another rather than being centrally corn fed. Chickens in portable coops are moved in behind them, where they dig through the cow dung to eat protein-rich fly larvae while further fertilizing the field with their droppings. [9]
Salatin condemns the negative impact of the United States government on his livelihood because of what he considers an increasingly regulatory approach taken toward farming. [10] He is a self-described "Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer", producing meat he describes as "beyond organic", using environmentally responsible, ecologically beneficial, sustainable agriculture. Jo Robinson said of Salatin, "He's not going back to the old model. There's nothing in county extension or old-fashioned ag science that really informs him. He is just looking totally afresh at how to maximize production in an integrated system on a holistic farm. He's just totally innovative." [1]
Commenting on a New York Times op-ed contribution about sustainable farming and bovine methane production, [11] Salatin wrote, "wetlands emit some 95 percent of all methane in the world; herbivores are insignificant enough to not even merit consideration. Anyone who really wants to stop methane needs to start draining wetlands." [12] Livestock production causes 32% of global methane emissions [13] and 30% of methane emissions in the US [14] - mostly due to enteric fermentation (burps) from ruminant livestock like cattle, and to a lesser extent manure - with increases in livestock numbers leading to an estimated 332% increase in methane emissions from ruminant livestock between 1890 and 2014 [15] . Wetland methane emissions make up 20 to 39% of global methane emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [16] He also said that most livestock producers use "Neanderthal management" that exaggerates the amount of land required, and that modern technology allows for far more sustainable land usage. [12]
Salatin has been editor of the monthly agriculture magazine Stockman Grass Farmer promoting pasture-grazed lifestock, [17] and teaches a two-day course on agribusiness marketing in conjunction with this magazine. [18] [19] He has authored twelve books including Folks, This Ain't Normal, You Can Farm, Salad Bar Beef and Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal. [20]
In November 2019 Salatin wrote a blog post [21] responding to a blog post by Chris Newman, another Virginia farmer and owner of Sylvanaqua Farms, in which Newman critiques the small family farm model and describes an alternative, vertically integrated system rooted in collective ownership. [22] Salatin said in his article that Newman, who is Black and Native American, was too early in his farming career to know whether he would be successful in the long-term, and that Newman would only "push would-be team players away" by complaining - writing "The problem with disagreeing with Chris is that I'll be called a racist [...] Is it more racist to play the race card to anybody who dares disagree with you than it is to actually be a racist?" and concluding "When I think of William Cody mounting a U.S. Postal Service Pony Express horse at the age of 13 and riding through paths lined with hostile Native Americans, I wonder where he is today. Fortunately, he's here; rare, but here." [21] In August 2020, an AGDAILY writer described Salatin's blog post as appearing racially inappropriate, and the publication referenced the criticism Salatin received in his attempt to discredit Newman. [23] After Salatin's remarks, Mother Earth News asked Newman to write for the publication for diversity in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Newman declined the invitation raising concerns about Salatin's article. [3] After public criticism of the publication's support for Salatin, Mother Earth News ultimately severed its relationship with Salatin. [24] [3] Salatin said that his blog "routinely offends big ag, bureaucrats, big pharma, etc, on purpose. But I never intend to offend people due to their race, religion, culture, gender, or creed and I’m sorry that this post did." [3]
In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, on his website, Salatin said he wanted coronavirus. Salatin was widely condemned for his comments by the public and his peers. [25]
Salatin has spoken as a farming educator at a wide range of organizations including the University of California at Berkeley, and the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. [1] In 2020, he spoke at the Libertarian National Convention about limiting regulation. [3]
Salatin's farm, Polyface, is featured prominently in Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006) and the documentary films, Food, Inc. and Fresh . Pollan became interested in Salatin because of his refusal to send food to locations beyond a four-hour drive of his farm, i.e. outside his local "foodshed". "We want [prospective customers] to find farms in their areas and keep the money in their own community", he said. "We think there is strength in decentralization and spreading out rather than in being concentrated and centralized." [26]
Salatin and his farm have also been featured in radio, television and print media including Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, Gourmet, and ABC News. [27]
Salatin received the 15th Annual Heinz Award with special focus on the environment. [28]
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, fisheries, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. While humans started gathering grains at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers only began planting them around 11,500 years ago. Sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle were domesticated around 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. In the 20th century, industrial agriculture based on large-scale monocultures came to dominate agricultural output.
Polyface Farm is a farm located in rural Swoope, Virginia, run by Joel Salatin and his family. The farm is driven using unconventional methods with the goal of "emotionally, economically and environmentally enhancing agriculture". This farm is where Salatin developed and put into practice many of his most significant agricultural methods. These include direct marketing of meats and produce to consumers, pastured-poultry, grass-fed beef and the rotation method which makes his farm more like an ecological system than conventional farming. Polyface Farm operates a farm store on-site where consumers go to pick up their products.
Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming, conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of agricultural land area. It is characterized by a low fallow ratio, higher use of inputs such as capital, labour, agrochemicals and water, and higher crop yields per unit land area.
Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starting with the Neolithic Revolution when animals were first domesticated, from around 13,000 BC onwards, predating farming of the first crops. By the time of early civilisations such as ancient Egypt, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs were being raised on farms.
Pastured poultry is a sustainable agriculture technique that calls for the raising of laying chickens, meat chickens (broilers), guinea fowl, and/or turkeys on pasture, as opposed to indoor confinement. Humane treatment and the perceived health benefits of pastured poultry are causing an increase in demand for such products.
In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible cellulose within grass and other forages into meat, milk, wool and other animal products, often on land that is unsuitable for arable farming.
Environmental vegetarianism is the practice of vegetarianism that is motivated by the desire to create a sustainable diet, which avoids the negative environmental impact of meat production. Livestock as a whole is estimated to be responsible for around 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, significant reduction in meat consumption has been advocated by, among others, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in their 2019 special report and as part of the 2017 World Scientists' Warning to Humanity.
Swoope is an unincorporated community in Augusta County, Virginia. Swoope is located on State Routes 703 and 860 7.4 miles (11.9 km) west of Staunton. Swoope has a post office with ZIP code 24479, which opened on March 6, 1838. Polyface Farm, a sustainable farm run by Joel Salatin, is also near Swoope. Students in the area go to Beverley Manor Elementary School, Churchville Elementary School, attend Beverley Manor Middle School, and Buffalo Gap High School.
Clifford Allan Redin Savory is a Zimbabwean livestock farmer and president and co-founder of the Savory Institute. He originated holistic management, a systems thinking approach to managing resources.
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Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options is a United Nations report, released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations on 29 November 2006, that "aims to assess the full impact of the livestock sector on environmental problems, along with potential technical and policy approaches to mitigation". It stated that livestock accounts for 18% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, a figure which FAO changed to 14.5% in its 2013 study Tackling climate change through livestock.
The environmental impacts of animal agriculture vary because of the wide variety of agricultural practices employed around the world. Despite this, all agricultural practices have been found to have a variety of effects on the environment to some extent. Animal agriculture, in particular meat production, can cause pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, disease, and significant consumption of land, food, and water. Meat is obtained through a variety of methods, including organic farming, free-range farming, intensive livestock production, and subsistence agriculture. The livestock sector also includes wool, egg and dairy production, the livestock used for tillage, and fish farming.
The environmental impact of agriculture is the effect that different farming practices have on the ecosystems around them, and how those effects can be traced back to those practices. The environmental impact of agriculture varies widely based on practices employed by farmers and by the scale of practice. Farming communities that try to reduce environmental impacts through modifying their practices will adopt sustainable agriculture practices. The negative impact of agriculture is an old issue that remains a concern even as experts design innovative means to reduce destruction and enhance eco-efficiency. Though some pastoralism is environmentally positive, modern animal agriculture practices tend to be more environmentally destructive than agricultural practices focused on fruits, vegetables and other biomass. The emissions of ammonia from cattle waste continue to raise concerns over environmental pollution.
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting in order to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals who are raised for consumption, and sometimes used to refer solely to farmed ruminants, such as cattle, sheep, and goats. Horses are considered livestock in the United States. The USDA classifies pork, veal, beef, and lamb (mutton) as livestock, and all livestock as red meat. Poultry and fish are not included in the category. The latter is likely due to the fact that fish products are not governed by the USDA, but by the FDA.
Organic farming in New Zealand began in the 1930s and became more popular in the 1980s. It has gained importance within the farming market, particularly with the recent involvement of larger companies, such as Wattie's.
Climate-friendly gardening is a form of gardening that can reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from gardens and encourage the absorption of carbon dioxide by soils and plants in order to aid the reduction of global warming. To be a climate-friendly gardener means considering both what happens in a garden and the materials brought into it as well as the impact they have on land use and climate. It can also include garden features or activities in the garden that help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through processes not directly related to gardening.
Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting biosequestration, increasing resilience to climate change, and strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil.
Frank Newman Turner, NDA, NDD, FNIMH, was a British pioneering organic farmer, writer and broadcaster, who, based on his experience of natural treatment of animals, later became a consulting medical herbalist and naturopath. His books Fertility Farming, Fertility Pastures, and Herdsmanship are regarded as classics of practical organic husbandry.
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a set of farming methods that has three main objectives with regards to climate change. Firstly, they use adaptation methods to respond to the effects of climate change on agriculture. Secondly, they aim to increase agricultural productivity and to ensure food security for a growing world population. Thirdly, they try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture as much as possible. Climate-smart agriculture works as an integrated approach to managing land. This approach helps farmers to adapt their agricultural methods to the effects of climate change.
The amount of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture is significant: The agriculture, forestry and land use sector contribute between 13% and 21% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture contributes towards climate change through direct greenhouse gas emissions and by the conversion of non-agricultural land such as forests into agricultural land. Emissions of nitrous oxide and methane make up over half of total greenhouse gas emission from agriculture. Animal husbandry is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.