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The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer [Paperback]

Joel Salatin
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 8, 2010
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.


Frequently Bought Together

The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer + You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise + Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World
Price for all three: $51.68

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joel Salatin and his family own and operate Polyface Farm, arguably the nation's most famous farm since it was profiled in Michael Pollan's New York Times bestseller, The Omnivore's Dilemma and two subsequent documentaries, Food, Inc., and Fresh. An accomplished author and public speaker, Salatin has authored seven books. Recognition for his ecological and local-based farming advocacy includes an honorary doctorate, the Heinz Award, and many leadership awards.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 300 pages
  • Publisher: Polyface (September 8, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0963810960
  • ISBN-13: 978-0963810960
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

About Joel
Joel F. Salatin (born 1957) is an American farmer, lecturer, and author whose books include You Can Farm and Salad Bar Beef.

Salatin raises livestock using holistic methods of animal husbandry, free of potentially harmful chemicals, on his Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Meat from the farm is sold by direct-marketing to
consumers and restaurants.

In high school, Salatin began his own business selling rabbits, eggs, butter and chicken from his family farm at the Staunton Curb Market. He then attended Bob Jones University where he majored in English and was a student leader. He graduated in 1979. Salatin married his childhood sweetheart in 1980 and became a feature writer at the Staunton,
Virginia newspaper, The News Leader, where he had worked earlier typing obituaries and police reports.

Tired of "having his stories spiked," he decided to try farming full-time after first getting involved in a walnut-buying station run by two high school boys. Salatin's grandfather had been an avid gardener and beekeeper and a follower of J. I. Rodale, the founder of regenerative organic gardening. Salatin's father worked as an accountant and his mother taught high school physical education. Salatin's parents had bought the land that became Polyface after losing a farm in Venezuela to political turmoil. They had raised cattle using organic methods, but could not make a living at farming alone.

Salatin, a self-described "Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-capitalist-lunatic-Farmer" produces high-quality "beyond organic" meats, which are raised using environmentally responsible, ecologically beneficial, sustainable agriculture. Jo Robinson, the author of Pasture Perfect: The Far-Reaching Benefits of Choosing Meat, Eggs and Dairy Products From Grass-Fed Animals (2004) said of Salatin, "He's not going back to the old model. There's nothing in county extension or old-fashioned ag science that really informs him. He is just looking totally afresh at how to maximize production in an integrated system on a holistic farm. He's just totally innovative."

Salatin considers his farming a ministry, and he condemns the negative impact on his livelihood and lifestyle of what he considers an increasingly regulatory approach taken by the agencies of the United States government toward farming. Salatin now spends a hundred days a year lecturing at colleges and to environmental groups.

Customer Reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
(21)
4.3 out of 5 stars
The humor and the information really kept us reading this book. Eda A. Jewett  |  4 reviewers made a similar statement
Do read it, please. Cloud  |  2 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
82 of 83 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Good lunacy October 11, 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'll get the negatives out of the way up front. First, this is basically a re-write of earlier works. The same themes, the same stories, the same references, appear over and over again in Salatin's work. He's sort of like your crazy uncle who tells the same stories every Christmas. If you have read You Can Farm or Everything I Want to Do is Illegal, you will be able to complete his thoughts without reading to the end of the paragraph. Second, he needs a decent proofreader. There are an annoying number of typos of the sort that spell check doesn't catch. Third, he ends every chapter with the same sentence... a silly and irritating device. Finally, there's a ton of white space, blank pages between chapters, etc. Delete those pages and all of the stories we've heard in other books and this would be a 50-page pamphlet.

Should you read this? Despite the complaints, my answer is yes. It's the kind of message that you can't hear too often. Salatin gets under your skin. You really feel like his crusade should be your crusade. You start thinking of things that you can do to defeat Monsanto, CAFOs, industrial corn, and the rest. Your list of acceptable restaurants dwindles. Your shopping habits change dramatically. You see the countryside with new eyes when you go on car trips. You sneer (moderately) when you see a weedy field with a few cows and no electric fencing. You get hungry.

Buy the book, read it, and then pass it on to a friend. You'll be glad you did.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars worth actually buying this book October 20, 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am a library patron. But I bought this book because I couldn't stand the thought of the 1 - 2 year wait until it would likely be available. And, I'm glad I did. I notice another reviewer had some of the same critiques I did, startling number of typos (startling in that Mr. Salatin rightly promotes professionalism and attention to detail) and repetition from earlier works. None-the-less, I delighted in all of it. I think it would be an excellent work to recommend to those you'd like to expose to this way of life and think you've likely only got one shot to make a case. But to that end, I wish this work, like his others, had the suggested reading section at the end. Such a list was, after all, how I found Joel Salatin in the first place.

Will you like this book? If you're of the Gene Logsdon, Wendell Berry, Eliot Coleman persuasion - or want to be - then you'll love it and should go ahead and get it.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A handbook for life? October 26, 2010
By Kelly W
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Joel Salatin never fails to make me think deeply about the status quo. Polyface Farms books are always incredible, but in this one Salatin presents an intelligent and spiritual commentary on his life's work. Lunatic Farmer is an easy read, packed full of amazing bits of agricultural teachings and personal wisdom. His ideas about stewardship are sensible and inspiring. Each chapter contains detailed information about Polyface practices, yet the writing is clear and entertaining. Although the theme is profound, you'll be laughing every few pages for sure. If everyone who considers themselves an animal rights advocate (or environmentalist) reads this book, there just might be an agricultural revolution! At the very least, we could experience a much needed awakening about what's really happening to our landscape and our society.

"You can tell the greatness of a nation by the way it treats its animals" M. Ghandi
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Salatin is Great as usual
The irreverent Joel Salatin wows us again with what a lot us consider good common sense about the appreciation of a life well lived and the struggle to maintain it. Read more
Published 27 days ago by Indigenous
5.0 out of 5 stars This makes sence!
Every one in govermental positions, no matter where on this earth, should read this, before making any new resolution concerned whith agriculture.
Published 1 month ago by Anita Pavulane
5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
This is second book of Joel Salatin that I have, and it is great, love the reading and so much info to be gathered from his books and videos!
Published 1 month ago by Y. Zeman
2.0 out of 5 stars Writing style is annoying to me.
I really admire what Mr Salatin has done, so much so that I have bought 15 acres of land and intend to use his methods. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Stephen Carlton
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book
This book is great. It talks about how Mr. Salatin makes thousands of animals happy every day and how you can too. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Dustin
4.0 out of 5 stars Well written
Easy to understand. Funny verging on hilarious. I recommend anyone who is interested in chemical free farming to read this book.
Published 3 months ago by Wendy Bartel
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous Salatin
This is Salatin at his best! If you've never read a book by him, this is the place to start! Not just for farmers, his uncanny logic and huge heart and energy has us wishing for... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Frustrated
5.0 out of 5 stars Farm & Garden
The humor and the information really kept us reading this book. It is highly recommended by me. I hope a lot more people will read it.
Published 14 months ago by Eda A. Jewett
2.0 out of 5 stars Love the guy, don't love the book
I'm a huge fan of Joel Salatin and Polyface farms and was really excited to read this book after learning about him in Michael Pollan's book. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Joey B
2.0 out of 5 stars Helpful advise buried in sarcasm
I gave up reading this book halfway in. I will tell you all why in a moment, but first must tell you a few things to put my review in clear perspective:

I consider... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Jennifer L. Myers
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