Oh we are out here! He started a worldwide movement and there are thousands of us that think just like him! We may not be as grammatically eloquent, but the tide is turning!
With all due apologies to Joel, but this is how our grandparents farmed - with the farm managed as an ecosystem that imported very little, and exported just food, plus brilliant young people who went on to contribute a lot to the world. Sure, some of the tools have changed, but the principles have remained the same. A few years back, someone finally showed Salatin an image in book that doumented chicken houses built on wagons, a practice that was in use hundreds of years ago in Europe. Cattle, sheep, and other livestock were herded with skill and the help of dogs, as covered in the book, 'The Art & Science of Shepherding'. Predators were kept away by livestock guardian dogs, and the good ole' farm dog, like in Disney's 'Old Yeller'. Oxen and horses were used to haul timber out of the woods - and their exhaust is FERTILIZER. When land was being cleared, goats were then brought in to eat the brush and any sprouts from tree stumps. Then hogs were brought in to clear the roots and uproot stumps. Some stumps were also pulled with the draft animals. In rocky fields, some dug trenches around the boundaries, and let the pigs roll the rocks around until they ended up in the trenches - making a great base for a stone wall that would resist frost heaving. I could go on... Nevertheless, we are fans of Salatin and appreciate his talent for getting the word out there that food production is rightly a biological process, not an industrial one.
The concept of 'transparancy' on a privately owned family farm is nice... but allowing anyone at any time access to private land and the animals that live there is an open invitation to problems. These days, a lack of respect for others, for their property, and for the rights of others has resulted in people causing major issues for some small, ecological farmers. Salatin is well know, Polyface is on the large size for this type of farm, both in acreage and cash flow. And there are a lot of people living and working there, family, apprentices and interns. All these factors make Polyface Farm much less vulnerable than many small ecofarms around the country - so don't be surprised or ttake it as a negative sign if other sustainable/regenerative farms ask you to respect their privacy and property boundaries. Transparency is important for governments and corporations. Let's respect the privacy of farm families, and their time. Most have open farm events, or other opportunities to see their farm and learn about how and why they do things the way they do.
Bench Marks of Truth 1. 3:38 Build Carbon 2. 10:16 Child Friendly 3. 14:48 Being Honoring 4. 18:08 Equity is Non-Physical 5. 19:34 Innovation is Empowered 6. 27:40 Should increase the Commons not Decrease the Commons 7. 33:03 Easy Entrance and Exit 8. 37:17 Consistent Across All Fields Spiritual, Ethical, Economic, and Ecological 9. 39:36 Appropriate in Both Developed and Undeveloped Countries 10. 42:49 Scales Up as Well as Down
Others who have been farming with nature on a farm/large scale, some for many decades: Gabe Brown - 'Treating the Farm as an Ecosystem' ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uUmIdq0D6-A.html Sepp Holtzer - who adopted the term 'permaculture' for his style of farming with nature when asked to do so: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6P81ZLODRQo.html Darren Doherty in Australia, but consulting around the world. Colin Seis in Australia Will Harris, White Oak Pastures in Georgia - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XNQvUSEKL6Q.html Allan Savory of Zimbabwe and Arizona
