Farmbrarian

Click to find at a library near you!

Joel Salatin is the famed owner of Polyface Farms located in Virginia and widely featured in the sustainable agriculture movement.  Author Michael Pollan featured Polyface in his best-selling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which contrasted Salatin’s idyllic method of agriculture with more industrial, less earth-friendly agribusiness; and the documentaries Fresh and Food, Inc. also spotlight Polyface Farms.

In Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal (2007), as you might guess, Salatin spells out his frustration with the government (occasionally referred to as the “chicken police”) over issues such as raw milk, custom beef, salmonella, farmer’s markets, organic certification, taxes and plenty more.

Readers will discover the many legal challenges Salatin faces as a result of laws designed for large agribusinesses that catch his small farm in an all-encompassing net.  For example, large dairy operations are required, and happy, to pasteurize their milk for safety reasons.  The mandate is a result of over-crowded, mis-fed and antibiotic filled cows, which are incomparable to Polyface’s small, pasture-raised herd.  Even though his milk doesn’t need to be pasteurized for the sake of its consumers, his farm (and many others just like it) receive no exemption from the law.

The book raises awareness of the many barriers that impede sustainable farming efforts. Understanding the obstacles faced by our small farmers is critical to the survival of the sustainable agriculture movement.

Quotes:

• “The system thinks we’re a successful culture because we have more prisoners in America than farmers” (XV).
• “[Farming] is not just a business, it is a sacred calling…serving people who seek truth and are willing to travel dirt roads to get it” (59).
• “A democracy that worships money and power is no better than a socialist society that holds the same values” (230).
• “Unless and until government policy encourages a local food chain, America’s food chain will be increasingly vulnerable to bioterrorism” (266).
• “If you want to know what good food is, as a rule of thumb, whatever was available in 1900 is probably okay” (322).

Click to find at a library near you!

Where Our Food Comes From traces the path of Nikolay Vavilov, a Russian scientist who embarked on a mission to collect and store seeds from around the world. According to Nabhan, Vavilov was the first to fully articulate the connections between food diversity, health and food security–all of which are hot topics in agriculture and nutrition (23). Vavilov’s journey and contribution to science and agriculture was certainly profound.

The book follows Vavilov’s path, a small part of which was recently retraced by Nabhan himself. Entwined in the story is that of the WWII era communist government of the Soviet Union, which was ultimately responsible for Vavilov’s premature death, despite his extraordinary and successful efforts to preserve plants for future generations.

A clear picture of Vavilov’s life is painted, but the book reads a bit like a history lesson. Hopefully the book inspires others to continue Vavilov’s life work, however it is unlikely to provide much in the way of entertainment.

Quotes:

• “Today, America educates its rural youth to aspire to be anything but a farmer” (137).
• “[Vavilov is] the man who more than anyone else in history helped humankind appreciate where our food has come from” (190).