Reading Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World by Joel Salatin has been a little life changing. While there are some topics he discusses that I knew of, there are a number of issues he brings up that I never knew, and from a completely different perspective! Joel Salatin is the owner of Polyface Farms in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia he is a self-proclaimed “Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer”. If you have never read his books or listened to him speak, I highly recommend it!
In Folks, This Ain’t Normal, he brings light to how we live such a different life now than how humans have lived throughout human history. We are so disconnected from how our food is raised/grown, how food is made, how water gets to our homes, and so many other things we take for granted. He also sheds light on the policies and red tape that hold back small regenerative farmers from being able to grow their customer base; how insurance and government policies are written in favor of large scale factory farming. This topic was incredibly interesting and something I did not know anything about, I definitely now want to read Joel’s book Everything I Want to do is Illegal.
I really enjoy Joel’s writing style, and the fact that at the end of each chapter there are 3-5 points to take away from the chapter/action steps. Some of the action steps are at a policy level, some are actions that individuals can easily take in their day-to-day life. There are times where he gets a little technical when talking about the science of farming and explaining the importance of regenerative farming practices for the environment, and the damage that large-scale factory farming continues to do the environment.
While some of the changes he recommends are big picture, he has many recommendations that we can all take in to our daily lives, such as getting to know local farmers, buying from local farmers, growing our own food, composting, being aware of our water usage, eating locally and seasonally, cooking our own food, and many more. One of the first steps I have implemented in my life is buying local eggs direct from the farmer, and let me tell you they taste so much better, and the yolks are a much richer gold color! Another thing I’m doing is growing my own lettuce, a tomato plant, a sweet pepper plant, and chives on the deck of our apartment. My next goal is to source local meat, which may be tough since we don’t have much freezer space, but it will be worth it.
As Joel says in the book, if we take the time that we normally spend watching TV, and instead spend it getting to know farmers and sourcing local food, what a change that would make.
I find Joel to be an inspiration as he works to educate people on the realities of farming and shares his unique perspective on life. Have you heard of Joel’s work before? What do you do to support local farmers and small businesses?
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