Last Wednesday night the Brickworks played host to farmer and author Joel Salatin, who is on a tour to support his new book. By the time his reading got under way, he was playing to a pretty much packed house. Joel is a remarkable speaker, and there is a deep level of ecological understanding beneath his homey farmer exterior. In approximately ninety minutes, he gave a thumbnail history of agriculture, particularly managed grazing and its' role in an ecosystem.
All ecosystems, he pointed out, develop and progress with the aid and intervention of animals, particularly herbivores. These creatures process perennial plant biomass, and accumulate nutrients which they help cycle through the system. He gave the example of herbivores grazing a valley floor, and how their movement transports material to the top of the valley. This seasonal rotational grazing was, he pointed out, the mechanism that created the metres-deep topsoil that covered the great plains. Joel went on to draw a parallel between the microbial community in healthy soil and the microbial community that lives within each of our guts, and how this relationship ties us to our ecosystem.
He asserted that we have been using our intelligence and cleverness in an attempt to live outside the constraints of our ecosystem, and the “blip” of cheap energy that has made that possible is coming to an end. Against this bleak backdrop, he talked about ecosystem centered farming as a way of re-establishing a food system that operates within our ecological budget, and noted that an ecologically minded grass based farm system not only regenerated and improved the land, but that it restored a sense of the sacredness of nature.
All in all it was quite an evening. The question and answer session touched on a lot of issues relevant to Canadian farmers, and a spirited talk on supply management followed. Quota systems like the current poultry and dairy industry works within, create an economic barrier to entry for young entrepreneurial farmers, and create an equal “barrier to exit” for existing farmers who wish to retire. The Wheat Board, on the other hand, was more of a co-operative that ensured a fair selling price for all grain farmers regardless of size. He had a fair bit to say on the subject of “the food police,” particularly raw milk. He applauded the movement to link farmers directly to consumers, and sketched his ideal world, where educated consumers could buy directly from the farmer with no regulatory buffer in between. This, he claimed, would make farmers directly accountable to consumers, and would drive food safety.
Lots of conversation afterward revealed audience members felt a deep agreement with Joel's views on ecology, and less agreement with his admittedly libertarian politics.
I am devouring his book, and will post a review as soon as I have finished it.
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