Lunatic Farmer

"I’m a third-generation lunatic … I don’t do anything like the average farmer," says Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in a USA Today piece by Joshua Hatch (4/22/09). You might know Joel as the author of six books on sustainable farming practices, or because he was highlighted in Michael Pollan’s "Omnivore’s Dilemma." Or maybe you know him because you’re one of his customers in "nearly two dozen towns in Maryland and Virginia."

If you’ve never heard of Joel Salatin, well, you’ll get your big chance in June, with the release of Food Inc., a documentary about the American food system, financed by the same group that produced Al Gore’s "Inconvenient Truth." To Joel, being a lunatic means letting "his cows feed on grass instead of corn or grain. He moves his cows to new fields daily … Hogs forage in the woods or in a pasture house, where they root through cow manure, wood chips and corn" that’s later used as compost to fertilize the grass that feeds the cows.

Joel says his methods run "completely counter to current agriculture wisdom," but that he’s "honoring the traditional natural patterns. It’s about enhancing the cowness of the cow." James McWilliams says that’s wonderful, just not scalable, arguing that using trucks to move food over short distances isn’t efficient. Jean Halloran disagrees, noting that local farms are closer to their consumers, who also "place greater value on the variety and freshness that local farms offer." Joel simply seems happy in his lunancy. "The greatest tragedy is that we’re abnormal," he says.