海角大神

Meet the best, loudest (and only) 海角大神-libertarian-capitalist-environmentalist-lunatic farmer on the face of planet Earth.

Joel Salatin, self-professed owner of that lengthy honorific, has a personality bigger than the Grain Belt and a genius for farming that has made him a glib, brilliant prophet to a growing movement of back-to-nature farmers from California to Swoope, Va. (pop. 1,326), where his 550-acre Polyface Farm rests at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Mr. Salatin鈥檚 agricultural preaching has influenced food author and journalist Michael Pollan (鈥淥mnivore鈥檚 Dilemma鈥�) and earned him a prominent spot in the documentary 鈥淔ood, Inc.,鈥� making waves worldwide.

What makes Salatin so powerful on the farming scene is a unique mix of ingenuity, faith, and business savvy.

Whether making farming lectures feel like religious revivals or handling customers鈥� questions at the family store, it鈥檚 this blend of agricultural potency and inspirational vision that enables him to gross roughly $2 million annually and stand at the front of a growing community of farmers that may look like quintessential American rustics but whose techniques are anything but traditional.

On a foundation of 海角大神 principles, Salatin has built a farming ecosystem where cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and rabbits interact ecologically in a way that goes beyond conservation.

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e looking at is God鈥檚 design, nature鈥檚 template, and using that as a pattern to cut around and lay it down on a domestic model to duplicate that pattern that we see in nature,鈥� Salatin says.

What that means for Polyface in practical terms is that the cattle graze different areas of pasture every day. Then chickens pick through the same fields, eating bugs and spreading cow manure before clucking back to mobile coops.

The farm鈥檚 pigs generate fertilizer by rooting around the floor of the barn, lured by sweet corn into aerating the mix of hay, cow manure, and wood chips. The finished compost is spread on fields. This process not only takes almost nothing out of the environment, it puts nutrients back in.

鈥淲e believe that the farm should be building 鈥榝orgiveness鈥� into the ecosystem,鈥� Salatin says. 鈥淲hat does that mean? That a more forgiving ecosystem is one that can better handle drought, flood, disease, pestilence.鈥�

Salatin concedes that when his father bought the farm in 1962, the family鈥檚 initial emphasis on sustainable farming had more to do with environmental concerns than faith convictions. But as the business evolved, Salatin began to see himself situated at a unique place in America鈥檚 moral conversation.

鈥淲e should at least be asking, Is there a righteous way to farm and an unrighteous way to farm? ... The first goal is to at least get people to appreciate that how we farm is a moral question,鈥� he says. 鈥淥nce you get to that point, then you can actually discuss: What is a moral farm? What is a moral way to raise a chicken?鈥�

How farm animals are treated on the majority of farms today dismays Salatin.

What Americans do to pigs, chickens, and cows speaks ill of the nation鈥檚 moral health, he says. 鈥淎 culture that views its life from such a manipulative, disrespectful stance will soon view its citizens the same way and other cultures the same way. It鈥檚 how we respect the least of these that creates a moral-ethical framework.鈥�

Don鈥檛 be confused: Salatin is no crunchy-granola transplant to Appalachia. He graduated from archconservative Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., with a degree in English. While he appreciates the 鈥渂earded, beaded, braless, Woodstock revolution鈥� set who make up the bulwark of environmentally conscious farming, he鈥檚 delighted that half of those coming to visit his farm nowadays are involved in the home-school movement.

It鈥檚 this broad appeal that makes Salatin unique, says Teresa Heinz, the American philanthropist whose foundation recently awarded him a $100,000 award for his work.
鈥淪alatin is a person who is accessible conceptually and conceptually acceptable to a huge number of people 鈥� not just the Massachusetts guys, but people from anywhere,鈥� Ms. Heinz says.

What breaks Salatin鈥檚 heart is that the rest of the religious right has been largely uninterested in picking up the banner of environmental stewardship.

鈥淚 think the whole religious right community should be very apologetic and repentant that we 鈥� who should have carried the banner of Earth stewardship 鈥� got co-opted on that message,鈥� he says.

But his position as a darling of the environmental left but with increasing cachet and respect from the religious right may make him the catalyst in bringing the two groups together.

鈥淏uying food as a community is a very fundamental 海角大神 value. It鈥檚 a value of many religions, and it鈥檚 a value of the liberal community as well,鈥� says David Evans, who owns Marin Sun Farms, 40 miles north of San Francisco. 鈥淚 like to believe that around food production is where we can become more politically neutral. Everyone should be around the table on these issues.鈥�

Like Salatin, Mr. Evans refuses to sell his products beyond a roughly four-hour drive from his farm. By following Salatin鈥檚 model of marketing directly to local restaurants, farmers鈥� markets, and grocers, Evans has tapped into a community-based form of economic growth.

鈥淲e were growing at 50 to 100 percent a year for the last 10 years,鈥� Evans says, adding that sales between June 2008 and August 2009 increased by 100 percent. 鈥淚t鈥檚 easy to adopt [Salatin鈥檚] practices because he has proven results.鈥�

In partnerships with local ranchers, Marin Sun Farms grosses roughly $3 million per year by selling to three public school districts, 49 restaurants, and Stanford University鈥檚 dining services, among others. Salatin, by comparison, sells to roughly 2,000 families through local 鈥渂uying clubs鈥� and about 50 restaurants, including a Chipotle franchise in Charlottesville, Va.

While farmers are often quick to grasp Salatin鈥檚 agricultural practices, persuading them to adopt the marketing portion of his program is much more difficult.

鈥淭hey assume they can just sit out on the tractor seat and till the crop and not have to deal with the people,鈥� says Galen Bontrager, a former apprentice at Polyface Farms who now runs a small, Salatin-inspired farm in Iowa.

Moreover, Mr. Bontrager says, farmers have become so used to relying on those outside agriculture for guidance on their farms that they鈥檝e lost their initiative.
This is part of the reason Salatin spends nearly half his time preaching his agricultural evangelism from coast to coast. By all accounts, his presentations are barnburners.

鈥淗earing him talk is like going to a revival meeting,鈥� says Jo Robinson, a journalist and founder of eatwild.com, a clearinghouse for information on pasture-raised animals.
People come away from his meetings, saying, 鈥� 鈥業鈥檓 going to do everything he鈥檚 doing!鈥� 鈥� she adds. 鈥淗e takes people who have never been farmers and inspires them to become farmers.鈥�

But the big question is, Can this sort of small-scale, environmentally sustainable farming really feed the world?

Salatin answers with a resounding yes, even though ecoconscious farming currently accounts for less than 5 percent of American food production. And that鈥檚 after what he estimates is a quadrupling of the number of environmentally friendly farms in the past five years.

鈥淣ot only can we feed the world, we鈥檙e the only system that can feed the world,鈥� Salatin declares. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 happening is that the current industrial system is beginning to break down.鈥�

Still, Polyface Farms faces an ethical limit when it comes to producing food: By promising personal connections with the purchasers of Polyface products, the business can grow only so large.

鈥淗is model is not scalable in terms of getting bigger and bigger. That defeats what he鈥檚 doing,鈥� Ms. Robinson says. 鈥淚t can be multiplied 鈥� there can be many people that do what he does. There are people who are scaling up so that they can sell to restaurant chains and Whole Foods, and he鈥檚 not a part of that.鈥�

If Salatin鈥檚 model is going to be more than a footnote to American agricultural history, many more farmers will need to attempt his delicate balance: growing big and savvy enough to make a decent profit while staying small enough to remain part of the community. Until then, Salatin and his devotees hope to find converts in more and more farmers鈥� markets, local restaurants, and buying clubs.

鈥淲e know that the best-tasting stuff and the most integrity is found by buying right from the farmer you know,鈥� Evans says. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 get any better than that.鈥�

Editor鈥檚 note: For more articles about the environment, see the Monitor鈥檚 main environment page, which offers information on many environment topics. Also, check out our and our .