Quotes by Joel Salatin

“All of these farms all over this county used to supply Staunton with home-cured bacon and ham. That was the backbone of the rural economy 50 years ago, and nobody got sick.”

“Certainly, its not for everybody, and were not picketing Wal-Mart or anybody else. But what I am saying is that we need the freedom to opt out of the system.”

“The bigger issue here is, to me, that when we cant access our neighbors with food, then farming just dries up. The fact is that all these hurdles that prohibit local food commerce keep what would be millions of dollars circulating in the rural local economy are therefore denied to the local economy. So farmers go out of business and sell to developers.”

“If you want government food, go to the supermarket and buy government food. But for those who want to have a relationship with their food, and the accountability that inherently comes with voluntarily and informatively opting out of the supermarket to go ask around, smell around, sniff around, look around and opt out of the government food system, they ought to have that right.”

“Our concern was that what has been a heritage occupation or hobby in this country would be destroyed in the paranoia of the avian flu story.”

The stronger a culture, the less it fears the radical fringe. The more paranoid and precarious a culture, the less tolerance it offers.

When faith in our freedom gives way to fear of our freedom, silencing the minority view becomes the operative protocol.

How much evil throughout history could have been avoided had people exercised their moral acuity with convictional courage and said to the powers that be, No, I will not. This is wrong, and I dont care if you fire me, shoot me, pass me over for promotion, or call my mother, I will not participate in this unsavory activity. Wouldnt world history be rewritten if just a few people had actually acted like individual free agents rather than mindless lemmings?

A farm includes the passion of the farmers heart, the interest of the farms customers, the biological activity in the soil, the pleasantness of the air about the farm -- its everything touching, emanating from, and supplying that piece of landscape. A farm is virtually a living organism. The tragedy of our time is that cultural philosophies and market realities are squeezing lifes vitality out of most farms. And that is why the average farmer is now 60 years old. Serfdom just doesnt attract the best and brightest.

On a grander scale, when a society segregates itself, the consequences affect the economy, the emotions, and the ecology. Thats one reason why its easy for pro-lifers to eat factory-raised animals that disrespect everything sacred about creation. And that is why its easy for rabid environmentalists to hate chainsaws even though they snuggle into a mattress supported by a black walnut bedstead.

A farm regulated to production of raw commodities is not a farm at all. It is a temporary blip until the land is used up, the water polluted, the neighbors nauseated, and the air unbreathable. The farmhouse, the concrete, the machinery, and outbuildings become relics of a bygone vibrancy when another family farm moves to the city financial centers for relief.

This magical, marvelous food on our plate, this sustenance we absorb, has a story to tell. It has a journey. It leaves a footprint. It leaves a legacy. To eat with reckless abandon, without conscience, without knowledge; folks, this aint normal.

A farmer friend of mine told me recently about a busload of middle school children who came to his farm for a tour. The first two boys off the bus asked, Where is the salsa tree? They thought they could go pick salsa, like apples and peaches. Oh my. What do they put on SAT tests to measure this? Does anybody care? How little can a person know about food and still make educated decisions about it? Is this knowledge going to change before they enter the voting booth? Now thats a scary thought.

Farms and food production should be, I submit, at least as important as who pierced their navel in Hollywood this week. Please tell me Im not the only one who believes this. Please. As a culture, we think were well educated, but Im not sure that what weve learned necessarily helps us survive.

I saw a news report recently that measured average video game use by American men between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five: twenty hours per week. Do you mean the flower of Americas masculinity cant think of anything more important to do with twenty hours a week than sit in front of a video screen? Folks, this aint normal. Cant we unplug already?

Read things youre sure will disagree with your current thinking. If youre a die-hard anti-animal person, read Meat. If youre a die-hard global warming advocate, read Glenn Beck. If youre a Rush Limbaugh fan, read James W. Loewens Lies My Teachers Told Me. Itll do your mind good and get your heart rate up.

The same teen who cant legally operate a four-wheeler, or [ATV]...in a farm lane workplace environment can operate a jacked-up F-250 pickup on a crowded urban expressway. By denying these [farm work] opportunities to bring value to their own lives and the community around them, weve relegated our young adults to teenage foolishness. Then as a culture we walk around shaking our heads in bewilderment at these young people with retarded maturity. Never in life do people have as much energy as in their teens, and to criminalize leveraging it is certainly one of our nations greatest resource blunders.

You, as a food buyer, have the distinct privilege of proactively participating in shaping the world your children will inherit.

The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard.

The average person is still under the aberrant delusion that food should be somebody elses responsibility until Im ready to eat it.