The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer

The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer cover
Pages:300 pages
Book Art:10 pages of illustrations
Size: 6 x 9 inch
Publisher:Polyface
Pub. Date: September 8, 2010
ISBN: 9780963810960

The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer

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Foodies and environmentally minded folks often struggle to understand and articulate the fundamental differences between the farming and food systems they endorse and those promoted by Monsanto and friends. With visceral stories and humor from Salatin’s half-century as a “lunatic” farmer, Salatin contrasts the differences on many levels: practical, spiritual, social, economic, ecological, political, and nutritional.

In today’s conventional food-production paradigm, any farm that is open-sourced, compost-fertilized, pasture-based, portably-infrastructured, solar-driven, multi-speciated, heavily peopled, and soil-building must be operated by a lunatic. Modern, normal, reasonable farmers erect “No Trespassing” signs, deplete soil, worship annuals, apply petroleum-based chemicals, produce only one commodity, erect Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, and discourage young people from farming.

Anyone looking for ammunition to defend a more localized, solar-driven, diversified food system will find an entire arsenal in these pages. With wit and humor honed during countless hours working on the farm he loves, and then interacting with conventional naysayers, Salatin brings the land to life, farming to sacredness, and food to ministry.

Divided into four main sections, the first deals with principles to nurture the earth, an idea mainline farming has never really endorsed. The second section describes food and fiber production, including the notion that most farmers don’t care about nutrient density or taste because all they want is shipability and volume. The third section, titled “Respect for Life,” presents an apologetic for food sacredness and farming as a healing ministry. Only lunatics would want less machinery and pathogenicity. Oh, the ecstasy of not using drugs or paying bankers. How sad. The final section deals with promoting community, including the notion that more farmers would be a good thing.

 


About Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin and his family own and operate Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The farm produces pastured beef, pork, chicken, eggs, turkeys, rabbits, lamb and ducks, servicing roughly 6,000 families and 50 restaurants in the farm’s bioregion. He has written 14 books to date, is editor of Stockman Grass Farmer Magazine, and lectures around the world on land healing and local food systems. Polyface Farm operates a formal apprenticeship program and conducts many educational workshops and events. 

Author Videos

Books By Joel Salatin

The Family Friendly Farming cover
The Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal cover
The You Can Farm cover
The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer cover
The Holy Cows and Hog Heaven cover
The Salad Bar Beef cover
The Pastured Poultry Profit$ cover
The Fields of Farmers cover
The Patrick’s Great Grass Adventure cover
The Your Successful Farm Business cover
The Beyond Labels cover
The Polyface Designs cover
The Polyface Micro cover
The Homestead Tsunami cover