Joel Salatin

The Lunatic Farmer

Joel Salatin, 62, calls himself a Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer. Others who like him call him the most famous farmer in the world, the high priest of the pasture, and the most eclectic thinker from Virginia since Thomas Jefferson.  Those who don’t like him call him a bio-terrorist, Typhoid Mary, charlatan, and starvation advocate.

With a room full of debate trophies from high school and college days, 12 published books, and a thriving multi-generational family farm, he draws on a lifetime of food, farming and fantasy to entertain and inspire audiences around the world.  He’s as comfortable moving cows in a pasture as addressing CEOs in a Wall Street business conference.

His wide-ranging topics include nitty-gritty how-to for profitable regenerative farming as well as cultural philosophy like orthodoxy vs. heresy.  A wordsmith and master communicator, he moves audiences from laughs one minute to tears the next, from frustration to hopefulness.  Often receiving standing ovations, he prefers the word performance rather than presentation to describe his lectures.  His favorite activity?–Q&A.  â€œI love the interaction,” he says.

He co-owns, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia.  Featured in the New York Times bestseller Omnivore’s Dilemma and award-winning documentary Food Inc., the farm services more than 5,000 families, 50 restaurants, 10 retail outlets, and a farmers’ market with salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry, and forestry products.  When he’s not on the road speaking, he’s at home on the farm, keeping the callouses on his hands and dirt under his fingernails, mentoring young people, inspiring visitors, and promoting local, regenerative food and farming systems.

Salatin is the editor of The Stockman Grass Farmer, granddaddy catalyst for the grass farming movement.  He writes the Pitchfork Pulpit column for Mother Earth News, as well as numerous guest articles for ACRES USA and other publications.  A frequent guest on radio programs and podcasts targeting preppers, homesteaders, and foodies, Salatin’s practical, can-do solutions tied to passionate soliloquies for sustainability offer everyone food for thought and plans for action.

Mixing mischievous humor with hard-hitting information, Salatin both entertains and moves people. Seldom using a power-point and often speaking from an outline scribbled in a yellow legal pad, he depends on theatrics, style, and compelling content to hold attention and defend innovative positions.  The rare combination of prophet and practitioner makes him both a must-read and must-hear in a time desperate for integrity leadership and example.

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www.thelunaticfarmer.com

Show highlights:

The ‘GRAS’ category
Regenerative farming
Why does regenerative farming produce rich orange yolks in eggs?
Is there a big difference in the nutrients we get from someone who does regenerative farming rather than organic farming?
The real definition of “free range” means having enough room to extend all appendages
Today’s pandemic is showing the fragility of having massive food processors instead of many smaller ones
China eats half the worlds pork
Nature’s default position is wellness
Most of these diseases we create because our immune system or microbiome gets messed up
Coronavirus could be a mix of pathogenicity
Hydration and sleep is very important to keep us healthy
How Joe Salatin keeps his chickens healthy
Studies showing quarantine causes more harm than good
When you don’t expose yourself to disease you become lethargic, and you end up having a worse reaction because of a lack of exercise with your immune system
Very few pathogens jump species; they are species specific
We’re the only country in the world that recognizes soil systems as organic
“The government that governs the less governs best”
Grass-fed meat has a reputation is doesn’t have as many fats; Can cows get enough fat from grass?
Does a grass-fed label mean anything?
Right now the industry is using “grass-fed” if a cow only eats a very small amount of grass

Joel Salatin, The Lunatic Farmer, with inspiring talk on regenerative farming and producing the best food ever, June 3, 2020