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This guy is a wacko but right on about the food and farming part (just don't mind that he's a Christian Libertarian anti-abortionist who doesn't believe in global warming...)
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Holy Cows & Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer's Guide to Farm Friendly Food
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Holy Cows and Hog Heaven is written by an honest-to-goodness-dirt-under-the-fingernails, optimistic clean good farmer. His goal is to:
Empower food buyers to pursue positive alternatives to the industrialized food system
Bring clean food farmers and their patrons into a teamwork relationship
Marry the best of western technology with the soul of eastern ethics
Educate food buyers about productions
Create a food system that enhances nature's ecology for future generations
Holy Cows and Hog Heaven has an overriding objective of encouraging every food buyer to embrace the notion that menus are a conscious decision, creating the next generation's world one bite at a time.
Empower food buyers to pursue positive alternatives to the industrialized food system
Bring clean food farmers and their patrons into a teamwork relationship
Marry the best of western technology with the soul of eastern ethics
Educate food buyers about productions
Create a food system that enhances nature's ecology for future generations
Holy Cows and Hog Heaven has an overriding objective of encouraging every food buyer to embrace the notion that menus are a conscious decision, creating the next generation's world one bite at a time.
160 pages, Paperback
First published February 19,2005
This edition
- Format
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160 pages, Paperback
- Published
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September 28, 2004 by Polyface
- ISBN
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9780963810946
- ASIN
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0963810944
- Language
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English
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Rating(3.8 / 5.0, 39 votes)
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39 reviews All reviews
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joel tells it like it is.
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Trying not to become paranoid about our food system. I am encouraged by him to know more about where my food comes from.
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Serendipitous.... I had this on hold at the library. Can't remember why. I just read Michal Pollan's In Defense of Food, which I loved, and he wrote the introduction to this book. And I just watched an episode of Chef's Afield that visited Polyface farm, which is the farm run by this author! I know I'll enjoy it.
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OK, so the writing wasn't exactly polished. The cover art is hokey. But this is such a timely treatise, from an actual farmer, with solid logic. I will let Joel speak for himself:
"Farm friendly food is good for our landscapes, our bodies, homeland security, and every other thing that is good and noble. Thousands of farmers view their production as a sacred trust between their land and the dinner plate. Those who take such a view should be patronized. You and I should buy their food." p. xix
"No one should have needed the reality of mad cow and the millions of taxpayer supported studies in sophisticated laboratories conducted by legions of academic geeks to make us understand that feeding chicken guts and cow brains to herbivores may not be a good idea." p. 4
(sarcastically) "My impression of the industrial food system today is that the most perfect dairy for the country would be one huge cow centrally located in the grain belt, maybe in Nebraska, with a web of megapipes carrying milk from a county-sized udder to every city. The mouth would be the size of a WalMart Supercenter, ingesting food a train car load at a time." p. 9
"Nuisance suits against farmers have become so common that legislatures around the country have passed "Right to Farm" laws. I call these "Right to Stink of the Neighborhood Laws." The bottom line is this: A farm friendly food system is both aromatically and aesthetically pleasing. Anything else is not a good food system, period." p. 16-17
"When people come and sit down in a true diversified, farm friendly vegetable garden, their spirits are soothed, their countenance radiates, and their emotions rest. The same is true in a field of grazing cows, a paddock of pastured chickens, or a savannah of pigaerating hogs." p. 19
"The most fertile virgin soils in the world exist under prairie grasses and forests. Several observations come to mind: They do not undergo tillage; a perennial plant covers the earth like a blanket. Mature leaves and plant material falls on top of the soil. Therefore the carbon falling to the earth is lignified rather than succulent vegetable material. It is ... incorporated by earthworms and other soil critters. Essentially nothing is brought in from outside the bioregion and nothing is exported. It is self maintaining....
"Much of the food grown in America does not come from fertile soil. It is nutritionally depleted. And just because soils grow volumes of stuff does not mean they are fertile." p. 28-29
"If it won't rot, it's not real food." p. 34
"Farm friendly food asks the question: 'Is the pig happy?'.... Happy pigs and happy cabbages provide the most nutritious food and require the least amount of pharmaceutical intervention." p. 45-6
"A community that can feed itself is free [as in liberty]." p. 57
"I realized that terrorists are not just 'them,' they are 'us.' Western terrorists are more sophisticated. Our domestic terrorists do not blow up schoolhouses, they splice genes. They destroy healthy cows in the name of science. They give chemical companies free roads and dump sites. They feed brains and spinal cord to cows. They lock up pigs and chickens in concentration camps - and feed the adulterated carcasses to our nation's school children." p. 88
"Is America better because we deny food like raw milk, raw apple cider, and unwashed eggs from entering the lips of our citizenry?" p. 89
"The working woman has subcontracted her kitchen to Archer Daniels Midland." p. 95
On regulation: "You can go deer hunting on a 70 degree day, dice it up [on the back stoop] and feed it to your buddies and their children anyway you choose, but you can't dress a beef steer and sell one T-bone to your uncle. You can eat sushi in a landlocked state, but you can't buy raw milk from a neighbor's cow even when you stand and watch it being milked. Scallions can be washed in non-potable water and sold in fast food restaurants, but a neighbor can't sell you canned tomatoes at the farmer's market.
"The bottom line for me is this: If you want to come to my farm, ask around, look around, smell around, and make a voluntary informed choice to patronize my product, it's none of the government's business. How did we get to the point where such sensible freedom would be denied in the land of the free and the home of the brave?" p. 104
"You, as a food buyer, have the distinct privilege of proactively participating in shaping the world your children will inherit." p. 125
[applause]
******************
OK, so the writing wasn't exactly polished. The cover art is hokey. But this is such a timely treatise, from an actual farmer, with solid logic. I will let Joel speak for himself:
"Farm friendly food is good for our landscapes, our bodies, homeland security, and every other thing that is good and noble. Thousands of farmers view their production as a sacred trust between their land and the dinner plate. Those who take such a view should be patronized. You and I should buy their food." p. xix
"No one should have needed the reality of mad cow and the millions of taxpayer supported studies in sophisticated laboratories conducted by legions of academic geeks to make us understand that feeding chicken guts and cow brains to herbivores may not be a good idea." p. 4
(sarcastically) "My impression of the industrial food system today is that the most perfect dairy for the country would be one huge cow centrally located in the grain belt, maybe in Nebraska, with a web of megapipes carrying milk from a county-sized udder to every city. The mouth would be the size of a WalMart Supercenter, ingesting food a train car load at a time." p. 9
"Nuisance suits against farmers have become so common that legislatures around the country have passed "Right to Farm" laws. I call these "Right to Stink of the Neighborhood Laws." The bottom line is this: A farm friendly food system is both aromatically and aesthetically pleasing. Anything else is not a good food system, period." p. 16-17
"When people come and sit down in a true diversified, farm friendly vegetable garden, their spirits are soothed, their countenance radiates, and their emotions rest. The same is true in a field of grazing cows, a paddock of pastured chickens, or a savannah of pigaerating hogs." p. 19
"The most fertile virgin soils in the world exist under prairie grasses and forests. Several observations come to mind: They do not undergo tillage; a perennial plant covers the earth like a blanket. Mature leaves and plant material falls on top of the soil. Therefore the carbon falling to the earth is lignified rather than succulent vegetable material. It is ... incorporated by earthworms and other soil critters. Essentially nothing is brought in from outside the bioregion and nothing is exported. It is self maintaining....
"Much of the food grown in America does not come from fertile soil. It is nutritionally depleted. And just because soils grow volumes of stuff does not mean they are fertile." p. 28-29
"If it won't rot, it's not real food." p. 34
"Farm friendly food asks the question: 'Is the pig happy?'.... Happy pigs and happy cabbages provide the most nutritious food and require the least amount of pharmaceutical intervention." p. 45-6
"A community that can feed itself is free [as in liberty]." p. 57
"I realized that terrorists are not just 'them,' they are 'us.' Western terrorists are more sophisticated. Our domestic terrorists do not blow up schoolhouses, they splice genes. They destroy healthy cows in the name of science. They give chemical companies free roads and dump sites. They feed brains and spinal cord to cows. They lock up pigs and chickens in concentration camps - and feed the adulterated carcasses to our nation's school children." p. 88
"Is America better because we deny food like raw milk, raw apple cider, and unwashed eggs from entering the lips of our citizenry?" p. 89
"The working woman has subcontracted her kitchen to Archer Daniels Midland." p. 95
On regulation: "You can go deer hunting on a 70 degree day, dice it up [on the back stoop] and feed it to your buddies and their children anyway you choose, but you can't dress a beef steer and sell one T-bone to your uncle. You can eat sushi in a landlocked state, but you can't buy raw milk from a neighbor's cow even when you stand and watch it being milked. Scallions can be washed in non-potable water and sold in fast food restaurants, but a neighbor can't sell you canned tomatoes at the farmer's market.
"The bottom line for me is this: If you want to come to my farm, ask around, look around, smell around, and make a voluntary informed choice to patronize my product, it's none of the government's business. How did we get to the point where such sensible freedom would be denied in the land of the free and the home of the brave?" p. 104
"You, as a food buyer, have the distinct privilege of proactively participating in shaping the world your children will inherit." p. 125
[applause]
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Lots of ranting, but I love a good rant.
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-skim for tips on how to buy wholesome food
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A bit of a rant but not terrible. Not very well organized but good ideas. Only a few new ideas for me ( but I have read other books that quote him).
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This is one of those books that makes me realize the world is not as it seems, that there is much that I assume and take for granted. Joel Salatin is a well known farmer and writer. He's a self-proclaimed "Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist." Salatin is known for his Polyface Farm in Virginia, where he raises cows, sheep, chickens, and rabbits using "beyond organic" methods.
In this book he challenges his readers to abandon the Wall Street/government cheap food bandwagon in favor of local beyond organic farmed food. He contrasts the differences between corporate farmers and local beyond-organic farmers to demonstrate what may be gained in the switch. But beyond that, he argues that the government and corporate food interests are in league to shut out the small farmers that produce better, safer food, in an attempt to line the pockets of big business and the requisite bureaucrats.
I'll be ruminating on this one for a while, maybe I'll even make the switch!
In this book he challenges his readers to abandon the Wall Street/government cheap food bandwagon in favor of local beyond organic farmed food. He contrasts the differences between corporate farmers and local beyond-organic farmers to demonstrate what may be gained in the switch. But beyond that, he argues that the government and corporate food interests are in league to shut out the small farmers that produce better, safer food, in an attempt to line the pockets of big business and the requisite bureaucrats.
I'll be ruminating on this one for a while, maybe I'll even make the switch!
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