Although Polyface farm has been glowingly featured in countless national print and video media, it would not exist if the USDA and the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services had their way. From a lifetime of noncompliance, frustration, humor, and passion come the behind-the-scenes real stories that have brought this little family farm into the forefront of the non-industrial food system. Asked recently where he thought America's...

Foodies and environmentally minded folks often struggle to understand and articulate the fundamental differences between the farming and food systems they endorse and those promoted by Monsanto and friends. With visceral stories and humor from Salatin's half-century as a "lunatic" farmer, Salatin contrasts the differences on many levels: practical, spiritual, social, economic, ecological, political, and nutritional.In today's conventional food-production...

Extremely well written, shows how a couple willing to work hard can make a profit (when was the last time the average farmer heard that word?) on 20 acres. Very tactfully explains why most farmers not only are not profitable, but often require someone working off the farm in order to maintain the lifestyle.

The aging farmer phenomenon is new and presents both unprecedented crisis and opportunity. Opening his heart and life, Joel Salatin uses his Polyface Farm experience to encouraged multi-generational farm relationships and germinate a new generation of young farmers.

Fresh celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.