Joel Salatin – Sustainable Farming and Going Beyond Organics
Filed Under: Environmental News, Susatainable Living on July 28, 2009
In Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley is a 550 acre spread called Polyface Farm. Run by Joel Salatin and his family, the farm is a definite model of farming integrity and sustainable agriculture. Polyface is pasture-based, sells only locally, and raises animals ethically and using ecologically sound methods to preserve both the landscape and humane treatment for the livestock.
Salatin will be in the film Food, Inc. and has authored several of his own books on sustainable methods and going beyond organic. He calls himself a “Christian-Libertarian-Environmentalist-Capitalist-Lunatic.”
The farm is family owned and operated by Salatin’s family and employes a couple of dozen people as interns, apprentices, and farm hands. Customers and other farmers are welcomed with smiles and handshakes and Polyface Farm is completely open and transparent to visitors.
The farm produces sustainable meats and they are in high demand, but Salatin refuses to break the local food chain by shipping them. Local pick up only and the locals flock to the farm to comply.
A recent interview in Blue Ridge Outdoors is well worth reading, wherein Salatin outlines how sustainable and humane farming works and how all agricultural operations can move towards going beyond organic.
Read the BRO interview of Salatin here.
If you’re looking for a local farm, try my guide to finding local farms and farmer’s markets here.
