Key Insights from the JRE Podcast with Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin is the owner of Polyface Farms, and author of numerous books including Pasture Poultry Profit$ and Folks, This Ain't Normal

A strong influence in the regenerative agriculture movement

The juxtaposition between the industrial food sector and the local-centric, direct sale, branded product directly from the farm - the pandemic is the best marketing strategy they've ever had.

An average fast food hamburger contains pieces of 600 animals.

Wouldn't it be an amazing thing if instead of having 150-200 mega processing facilities doing 98% of the nations meat, if instead that we're 200,00 small scale, community basted, ecologically nested facilities all around the country? That would be an incredibly resilient system.

Ultimately what we are looking for is a habitat that allows each life form, plant or animal, to express its nature. Creating a habitat that allows a life to express it's phenotypical and physiological distinctiveness. In humans we would call this self affirmation.

We live in the most amazing microscopic soup. If you could take an electromagnetic photograph of the air - our skin is exuding stuff. Our noses, our clothes, everything. All of this life is literally having a conversation. It's a drama going on inside of us and outside of us.

The thought that we can somehow isolate ourselves - extract ourselves - from this magnificent life conversation that's going on in us, on our clothes, our hair, our eyes. It's silly. That's how our immune system works.

There's a lot of money in sickness. We didn't get Coronavirus due to a lack of vaccine. We got Coronavirus because something in this beautiful microscopic bath was out of whack. There was an imbalance in life.

We as collective humanity have taken this beautiful benevolent Earth - this sustainer, partner, mentor, abundant provider - we've taken this partner to the boxing ring. Instead of caressing this abundant, wonderful partner provider we've pummeled it.

We've pulled the water out of its aquifers, we've destroyed its soil. We've put a deadzone the size of Rhode Island in the Gulf of Mexico. We've used antibiotics in animals and made MRSA and C. diff and superbugs.

Nature has been gently, gently begging for relief as we've essentially put our foot on her neck. We simply don't listen and continue to pummel.

Is it possible to feed all of Los Angeles using regenerative methods? The bottleneck in the food system is not because there aren't enough animals in the field. It's not trucking, its not production, its not even the store shelves. It's the processing that's the bottleneck.

Can we produce the food this way? Absolutely. One of the things this would require is way more people growing food, participating in production. Is food going to be more expensive? Maybe so. But you get to be healthy, and we get to have a healthy planet. How much is that worth?

A cheeseburger shouldn't cost $0.99. The externalized costs of our current system aren't factored in. what if you start putting dollars to the dead zone in the Gulf?

If regenerative agriculture became the new way there would be economies of scale we don't have now. The reason our chicken is more expensive than what is in the store is not only externalized cost, it is unrecognized savings that we offer that can't be captured.

The overall big picture of health for you, health for the food, how much is that worth? What are the secondary costs of doing it the wrong way?