Joel Salatin

“Our motto is we respect and honour the pigness of the pig and the chickenness of the chicken. That means not confining them in a house with hundreds of others.”

“Unfortunately in the U.S., the courts have pretty much sided with the GMO lobby and suggesting that a farmer has no rights to be protected from GMO contamination.”

“I inherited Mom's verbal skills, and participated in forensics and essay contests in elementary school - and won every essay contest I ever entered.”

“Throughout high school, I peddled my eggs, had a vendor stand at the local curb market - precursor to today's farmers' markets - and competed in 4-H contests and interscholastic debate.”

“We need to respect the fact that cows are herbivores, and that does not mean feeding them corn and chicken manure.”

“We move the cows every day to a new spot which allows the grass time to recuperate and go through its what I call 'the teenage growth spurt.'”

“Our land-healing ministry really is about cultivating relationships: between the people, the loving stewards, and the ecology of a place, what I call the environmental umbilical that we're n...”

“The mechanical food system externalizes a lot of costs like obesity or Type 2 diabetes.”

“Choose to patronise your local farmers; as eaters, you need to demand a different type of food. Appreciate the pigginess of the pig.”

“We believe that the farm should be building 'forgiveness' into the ecosystem. What does that mean? That a more forgiving ecosystem is one that can better handle drought, flood, disease, pest...”

“What we're looking at is God's design, nature's template, and using that as a pattern to cut around and lay it down on a domestic model to duplicate that pattern that we see in nature.”

“Ecology should be object lessons that the world sees, that explains in a visceral, physical way, the attributes of God.”

“It really disturbs me that the environmental movement has been co-opted by creation-worshippers instead of being encouraged by the Creator-worshippers.”

“Too often, parents whose children express an interest in farming squelch it because they envision dirt, dust, poverty, and hermit living. But great stories come out of great farming.”

“I didn't really see a way to make a living on the farm. I always loved writing. I was the guy who won the D.A.R. essay contest and things like that, and it was the era of Watergate, and I de...”

“Know you food, know your farmers, and know your kitchen.”

“Our culture doesn't ask about preserving the essence of pig; it just asks how can we grow them faster, fatter, bigger, and cheaper. We know that's not a noble goal.”

“The shorter the chain between raw food and fork, the fresher it is and the more transparent the system is.”

“There's a short chain between field and fork, and the shorter that chain is - the fresher, the more transparent that system is - the less chance there is of anything from bio-terrorism to pa...”

“Outrageous behavior, also known as the lunatic fringe, is the seed bed of innovation and creativity.”