Ranch Foods Direct Newsletter

Joel Salatin is a farmer from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and the author of Holy Cows and Hog Heaven and many other books. With his family, he runs a diversified sustainable farming operation producing beef, hogs and pastured poultry and eggs, and direct-markets his food products.

Local food is important because it keeps everybody honest, Salatin said. When “the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker” move out of the community, they are much more likely to become bad actors, compared to when they are operating close to home and monitored by members of the community, Salatin pointed out. But he added that local food is often pushed out by abusive government regulations and because small producers have little or no market access.

“The problem is big business wanting things cheap, in high volumes and everything the same,” said Mike Callicrate, who is familiar with Salatin’s production model and attended his presentation.

Based on an analysis of chloroform numbers, Salatin said his birds — processed outdoors — were 2,500 times cleaner than industrial poultry. Still, the government has threatened to shut him down, he said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is also trying to impose tracking requirements that mandate every individual animal have a federal ID number, a move that Salatin and many others strongly oppose.

“We’re at Wounded Knee in our food system,” he said. Wounded Knee, South Dakota, was the site of the last stand by the Lakota Sioux Indians before they surrendered in futility to the U.S. Cavalry. Salatin said the Native Americans had a lot of things right — if only the early Americans had listened.

The Peak to Plains Alliance, of which Ranch Foods Direct is a founding member, was involved in helping to set up the event and offered educational materials to those who attended.

If you still want to know more about how Salatin’s farming operation works — or about the message he shared at Colorado College, CLICK HERE to read an excellent report, published by the Pueblo Chieftain.