Interview with Joel Salatin ranges wide

He’s one of the country’s more influential farmers

By Culinate staff

August 11, 2009

Virginia farmer Joel Salatin, who was featured prominently in the movie "Food Inc," and in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, talks with Treehugger about farming and more in a lengthy interview that ranges from how he went from being a newspaper reporter to farming full-time:

My marketing savvy (which is really another name for theatrical skills) paid off as we began selling direct to consumers, bypassing the middleman and getting retail sales prices.

and on whether size matters (of a farm):

I think size is not as important as attitude.

and on industrial agriculture:

Industrial food never asks whether the pig is happy. The pig-ness of the pig never enters the conversation. It’s all about fatter, faster, bigger, cheaper.

Oregon Portlanders: Joel Salatin will be in town this Thursday, August 13, speaking at the Friends Masonic Center at NE 57th and Sandy Boulevard. It’s a benefit for the Hollywood Farmers’ Market; details are here.