He calls himself a 'Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer'.
Those who like him call him the most famous farmer in the world, the pastor of the pasture, and the most important thinker from Virginia since Thomas Jefferson. Those who don’t like him call him a bio-terrorist, a charlatan and starvation advocate, among other things.
I call Joel Salatin, my good friend.
I first shared about Joel after spending a weekend with him at his Virginia farm in 2019 and many times since then, as his story and life and ours have overlapped many times in the last half-dozen years as we continue to strive to grow as much of our own food here on the farm, in the healthiest way for the aminals, the land, and for our family. Most recently, I shared a post in August of 2023, after taking part in the two-day regenerative farming class he put on at this farm Polyface.
His name has come up again a week or so ago, but in a surprising way. My friend Jason called and was raving about a documentary that he'd just seen on TV, and asked if I knew Joel Salatin. He was so excited about what he'd watched , and about Joel and what he's doing, which caught me off guard, because Jason is a high-powered attorney who wears a suit and bowtie everyday.
"Rory, I'm telling you... he's the next Wendell Berry!", Jason excitedly said... which is a big statement to make to a guy like me who has just about every book Wendell Berry has ever written.
It turns out that this past summer, the folks from Angel Studios, who made the wonderful series The Chosen (which our family watched and loved) came to Joel's farm with a film crew and created a full documentary on Joel, his life, his farming methods and his vision for the future of food and farming. Here's the trailer...
I've been following Joel's regenerative farming methods for years - moving cows to a new grass paddock everyday, and having our laying hens following behind - raising meat birds in movable shelters and a half-dozen or more other processes that he's pioneered over the last four decades. And it's made an incredible difference in our farm, our animals and ultimately, the food in our freezer and on our table.
It's been fun to watch the last couple of years - especially beginning in 2020 - as Joel has gone from being a 'fringe' farmer, who many people dismiss as crazy, to a powerful voice of reason in agriculture and sustainable food movement and an example of hope for the world today.
I think it's partly because Joel is an unusual combination of preacher, prophet, food-advocate, entrepeneur... and of course, farmer. He's just as comfortable in a suit and tie giving a talk to Google executives, or defending small farmers in a congressional hearing as he is in his beat-up hat and jeans giving hands-on tours to the scores of people who travel to his farm each year to visit the 'mecca' of America's return to homesteading.
But I think what excites me most about the release of the documentary is that people that a few years ago never gave a thought to where their food comes from, or taking part in growing it for their families... are coming out of the woodwork; and are now growing, or purchasing locally, some or most of what their families are eating.
I've stayed with Joel and his wife Teresa many times at their house on the farm that they've been in since he was a boy. And I've never met anyone whose passion, work and life overlap in the way his does. From an early age he knew what God's calling on his life was and he has spent the last 50 years following that call and sharing the gospel of 'faithful land stewardship'... to encourage individuals and families to shift the responsibility of our food production from multi-national food and pharmaceutical corporations to our own backyards and communities.
And his passion and innovative farming methods have taken him all over the world: from being featured in a multitude of books and films, Joe Rogan's podcasts, consulting for King Charles, to most-recently being contacted by the Trump transition team to potentially hold an advisory position within the USDA.
It will be exciting to see what the next few years hold in store for all of us with RFK leading the Department of Health and folks like Casey and Callie Means waking the world up to what's going on behind the scenes in big food and pharma, and of course Joel...there on his farm, giving us all a better model of how we can not only grow healthier soil, but healthier animals, food and most of all... children and families.
Joel is also an incredible writer and writes a personal blog where he shares his thoughts on all things regenerative farming.
Be sure to check out the new Lunatic Farmer documentary. And if you're future looks anything like ours, and you find yourselves wanting to learn more about Joel's farming methods, he and our good friends from Lil'Dragon (who helped make our Joey+Rory TV show years ago) have created "Farm Like A Lunatic", an incredible homesteading masterclass that shares Joel's online courses that cover
On a personal note, this winter I've been following Joel's 'carbonaceous diaper' method of using this season of cold weather to capture as much of our cow's waste to be able to spread it out on our fields this Spring. Joel's son Daniel, who now runs Polyface and oversees most of the operations, has been talking me through it over the last couple of months.
I've also personally been watching Joel's online courses myself. Learning as much as I can from right here at home.
Lastly, if you're interested in seeing Joel or his son Daniel speak and meeting them in person, they'll both be coming back to be part of the 4th Annual Homestead Festival that we'll be hosting here our farm this coming June 6th and 7th!
Keep up the "good" work👍
Trumpsters. Not for me.