While still educating their two children at home, the Salatins always hosted the local home school group for a hay ride up the mountain behind their farm with a cookout near the top. An annual October event, we all looked forward to it and enjoyed the crisp mountain air as the leaves displayed their magnificent colors on the Alleghany slopes. As families arrived in the afternoon, Joel provided ongoing wagon tours of the farm, explaining his new-thinking farming techniques as chickens pecked and cattle grazed nearby. Always willing to share and teach, he has mentored many young people over the years as they apprenticed at the farm. Even my Richmond sister buys Polyface products, bringing coolers when she visits to stock up until the next time she's in town.
Joel is brother to Art Salatin who is the father of Cpl. Nate Salatin, USMC, a family that is also active with SWAC area home schoolers.
Joel was the recent recipient of the Heinz Award that was established to honor the achievements of individuals in the areas of arts and humanities, human condition, public policy, and technology. The Heinz press release announced the award:
Joel Salatin, farmer, author and lecturer, is honored as a Heinz Award recipient for creating alternative, environmentally-friendly farming techniques, spawning a movement towards local, sustainable agriculture that has been replicated by family farms around the country. Mr. Salatin has developed a new paradigm for agriculture by successfully challenging the commercial production of chicken and beef by food industry giants. His pioneering agricultural practices inextricably and beautifully interweave a food system with the land and have been embraced by farmers nationally.Winning the Heinz Award brings with it a nice financial prize of $100,000 that will more than likely be used to further Joel's research into his alternative farming practices.
At Polyface Farm, Mr. Salatin’s 550 acres of rolling Virginia hills in the Central Shenandoah Valley, he raises beef, sheep, chickens, pigs, rabbits and turkeys in a complex rotation based on the intricate relationships of these animals to one another and to the grass that is at the basis of the farm’s food chain.
Polyface Farm nets more than $150,000 annually, which, maintains Mr. Salatin, is proof that sustainable farming is a viable way to keep family farms together while producing healthy food in harmony with the environment. Mr. Salatin, with his bold confidence in the benefits of his alternative methods for a healthier planet, has been featured in books, periodicals and the 2009 documentary film, Food Inc.
What began as a foray into organic farming has evolved into a breakthrough model. Through his system for rotating animals to enhance their symbiotic relationships, Mr. Salatin is accomplishing nothing less than a transformation of traditional agricultural practices, a shift that will have a profound impact on farming well into the 21st century.
In hundreds of speeches across the county, Mr. Salatin presents solutions to bridging the gulf that separates the environmental movement from agricultural reform, demonstrating that there is a model for raising food animals that reflects both environmental and moral values.
The local Staunton News Leader covered the story. More about Joel can be found here, and here.
Joel's books include:
Pa$tured Poultry Profit$Find more information at the Polyface Farm website.
Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal
You Can Farm
Family Friendly Farming
Holy Cows and Hog Heaven
Many thanks to the Salatins for their contributions to the home school community over the years.
Congratulations, Joel and Teresa!
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