Polyface Farm Visit

My big birthday gift from Chad was going to visit and tour Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm in Virginia.  Joel Salatin is my hero - he is well known in the sustainable farming world and if you've seen the documentary Food, Inc. then you've seen him and his farm featured in that movie.  I was first introduced to Joel Salatin by the documentary Food, Inc.  I had already been reading a lot of books about the industrial food industry, but watching Food, Inc. was life changing for me.  Then I read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan where Pollan goes to Polyface farm and works there learning all about Joel Salatin's sustainable way of farming.  In that book Joel Salatin compares the food industry to the Protestant Reformation - he basically says that we don't need the government to pass laws banning certain farming practices or industries, but if enough people are educated about the reality of industrial food production and choose another way there is no need for any laws.  Just like when Martin Luther wrote the 95 Thesis and effectively opened the door for Protestantism, there was no need for any laws outlawing Catholicism but as people could read the Bible for themselves they could make their own choice.  This was really a lightbulb moment for me - we don't need laws to make changes - we make better choices and eventually if enough people make better choices and support their local farmers then the industrial food industry will be unnecessary.  Anyway, I'm a BIG fan of Joel Salatin and I think that he is a farming icon.  So, when I found out that Polyface offered twice monthly farm tours for only $15 each I told Chad that that's what I wanted to do for my birthday, so we bought tickets for the last weekend in September and found a place to stay in Charlottesville, VA (about an hour away from the farm).  So, here are our pictures from our weekend in Charlottesville and our Polyface Farm tour.  The best part of the whole trip was meeting Joel Salatin and getting to talk to him at the end of the farm tour - we also got a picture with him and he signed one of my books!