 |
|
|
|
|
|
Book Reviews
|
|
|
|
Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer's
Guide to Farm Friendly Food
by Joel Salatin
(Chelsea Green, 2004, 134 pages)
|
|
|
|
Joel Salatin produces what he calls “farm friendly food.” He takes pride in the “happy” grass-fed cows and chickens he raises on his Virginia farm and markets directly to the local community. And in his new book “Holy Cows and Hog Heaven,” Salatin explains how food buyers can identify farm friendly producers like himself and help create a different kind of food system with their purchasing decisions.
For Salatin a farm friendly producer values openness and transparency. That’s why he has a policy of allowing visitors to roam freely around his farm to see how he does business. He notes that “a packing house for a Community Supported Agriculture farm is a lot different than one for Jolly Green Giant,” This type of accountability stands in sharp contrast to the “world of mystery and intrigue” that characterizes industrial agriculture. Rather than being secretive, farmers like Salatin are generally more-than-happy to convey information to customers about the food they produce.
The author is a self-described “capitalist, environmentalist, Christian, libertarian” and believes that progress comes from combining western technological savvy with more holistic eastern philosophies. He describes his desire to raise happy animals as a “moral framework to contain our human cleverness,” And he questions the bigness and empire-building mentality of corporations like Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland. Salatin is particularly critical of genetically-engineered foods, which, in addition to violating his religious beliefs, he says “enslaves farmers to patented life forms owned by corporations.”
In encouraging consumers to purchase more local farm friendly food, he notes that it’s not possible to be perfect 100% of the time. But he is encouraged by the resurgence of consumer-producer interaction as farmers do more direct marketing of their products. This strategic shift has presented some new challenges to farmers who must worry not only about planting and harvesting, but also labeling and marketing. But he sees momentum building as more and more farmers look for alternatives to traditional commodity distribution and more shoppers seek alternatives to far-away food sold at supermarkets and Wal-Marts. Salatin believes that as this trend continues, new marketing and food transfer arrangements will pop up.
Salatin’s libertarian philosophy comes across in his critique of government regulation of local food processing, which he views as the single biggest impediment to the success of farmers like himself. His family already cans and preserves a lot of the food they can’t use right away. But he also believes farmers should be able to process and sell their own meat, cider, and milk without burdensome regulations which make such endeavors profitable only at large scale, centralized facilities. And he questions whether our fast-food diets and industrial-processed food is really any safer than food that could be processed locally by smaller operations.
What comes across clearly in this book is the author’s passion for farming in a way that is life-affirming, ecological, and local. It also conveys his dismay at the way consolidation has turned “farming” into “manufacturing” and threatened the continuing survival of so many small farms. But his message is ultimately one of empowerment for food buyers who he believes have the ability to create a farm friendly food system through their everyday shopping choices.
By Brad Johnson
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
