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totorosourdough 's review for:
Very useful, down-to-earth advice about farming and managing a home business. In particular, this notion of his is perfect for every endeavor: If you want to farm and you aren't farming right now, what are you doing? Don't wait for something like owning land, and indeed question the necessity of owning land. He may be a bit optimistic on revenue, or maybe what works for you will be different. But if you are thinking of a life change toward nature and sustainable food, this book offers a wealth of solid advice.
The book is also a promotion of Polyface Farm, but it's the best kind of marketing: promotion in toe with useful/enjoyable information. Moreover, more small farms out there would probably also be a net win for all small farmers because customers would be more familiar with buying from small farms and regulators would have to see small farms as a stakeholder, hopefully leading to fewer hostile regulations.
Here and there, we snowballed from apples with spots to government conspiracies, but he has a reasonable mistrust of the government as a farmer. He and fellow author farmers, such as John Klar, have found it a necessity to either avoid or legally challenge government regulations that would put them out of business. As Elinor Ostrom showed in Governing the Commons, government intervention can only strengthen the local governance over their common resources, such as soil, ecosystems, farmland, water, etc., when the government supports the local law of the land. Otherwise, she concluded, government regulation is counterproductive.
There are a very few points where I cannot find any common grounds with Joel Salatin. There are a few, but not worth mentioning. In fact, he may yet convince me that charging high prices is the best thing. I can see how it conforms to the viewpoint of a free market economics fan, but I remain unconvinced that money can ever do anyone any good. If you can feed yourself and share gifts of this and that with your community, or barter as you like, that's good enough, I think. I realize this would mean an end to smartphones and audiobooks. I realize a shift too quickly away from money would be a human catastrophe. I think people with money are like plants on fert. Going cold turkey can be counterproductive, and the turnover to a better, more wholistic and satisfying system should be done gradually with care. I think local communities can provide that care because that is the traditional role of the community.
But back to Mr. Salatin's book. There are a few intersections with my own life here, such as my brother having moved to Venezuela. He is a permaculturalist farmer there now who also brings food and community to his village. There is our dad who homesteaded like his. And I think this is a hidden gem from the book: Even if you start late, you leave an impression on your children.
I personally want to take this beyond farming to hunting and gathering. If you like grass-fed cows, consider truly free-range deer. Consider too the traditional role humans have played in our ecosystems in almost all of human history, including in present day, as hunters, fishers, farmers, and foragers. Food forests are my interest.
The book is also a promotion of Polyface Farm, but it's the best kind of marketing: promotion in toe with useful/enjoyable information. Moreover, more small farms out there would probably also be a net win for all small farmers because customers would be more familiar with buying from small farms and regulators would have to see small farms as a stakeholder, hopefully leading to fewer hostile regulations.
Here and there, we snowballed from apples with spots to government conspiracies, but he has a reasonable mistrust of the government as a farmer. He and fellow author farmers, such as John Klar, have found it a necessity to either avoid or legally challenge government regulations that would put them out of business. As Elinor Ostrom showed in Governing the Commons, government intervention can only strengthen the local governance over their common resources, such as soil, ecosystems, farmland, water, etc., when the government supports the local law of the land. Otherwise, she concluded, government regulation is counterproductive.
There are a very few points where I cannot find any common grounds with Joel Salatin. There are a few, but not worth mentioning. In fact, he may yet convince me that charging high prices is the best thing. I can see how it conforms to the viewpoint of a free market economics fan, but I remain unconvinced that money can ever do anyone any good. If you can feed yourself and share gifts of this and that with your community, or barter as you like, that's good enough, I think. I realize this would mean an end to smartphones and audiobooks. I realize a shift too quickly away from money would be a human catastrophe. I think people with money are like plants on fert. Going cold turkey can be counterproductive, and the turnover to a better, more wholistic and satisfying system should be done gradually with care. I think local communities can provide that care because that is the traditional role of the community.
But back to Mr. Salatin's book. There are a few intersections with my own life here, such as my brother having moved to Venezuela. He is a permaculturalist farmer there now who also brings food and community to his village. There is our dad who homesteaded like his. And I think this is a hidden gem from the book: Even if you start late, you leave an impression on your children.
I personally want to take this beyond farming to hunting and gathering. If you like grass-fed cows, consider truly free-range deer. Consider too the traditional role humans have played in our ecosystems in almost all of human history, including in present day, as hunters, fishers, farmers, and foragers. Food forests are my interest.