Folks,ThisAin'tNormal

I recently read Joel Salatin's Folks, This Ain't Normal (2011).  JS is a farmer/writer/speaker/environmentalist who is known internationally for his beliefs about holistic, sustainable agricultural practices.  I should also add that JS is part comedian.

I learned quite a lot from reading this work.  Here are some of the resonating ideas I took from JS's work:

• Depriving our children of the experience of raising the food they eat is a huge mis-step in our culture.
• Engaging in the work of growing food nurtures both our immune systems and our souls.
• The average morsel of food in America travels 1500 miles from field to fork.
• Agendas drive data, not the other way around.
• The health of plants, animals, and humans starts with the health of the soil.
• Full and absolute transparency is the accountability measure of integrity.
• "Economic segregation protects the haves from seeing the needy, and prevents the needy from seeing possibilities."
• The only reason the current grain-based food system works is because of cheap fuel. If that fails, the system crashes.
• Artificial manure = artificial food = artificial animals = artificial humans.
• "No government agency has been more successful at annihilating its constituency than the USDA." (p. 250)
• According to our government, Coca Cola is safe but raw milk is not.  Really?
• "Safe" food is deemed so only because it kills you slowly.
• A risk free life is not worth living. 
• Real food is ALIVE. Sterilized food is not.

My favorite quote:  
"The truth is this: 'If it's worth doing, it's worth doing poorly first.'" (p. 87)