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    Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World
    Unavailable
    Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World
    Unavailable
    Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World
    Audiobook15 hours

    Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World

    Published by Hachette Audio

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    About this audiobook

    From farmer Joel Salatin's point of view, life in the 21st century just ain't normal. In FOLKS, THIS AIN'T NORMAL, he discusses how far removed we are from the simple, sustainable joy that comes from living close to the land and the people we love. Salatin has many thoughts on what normal is and shares practical and philosophical ideas for changing our lives in small ways that have big impact.

    Salatin, hailed by the New York Times as "Virginia's most multifaceted agrarian since Thomas Jefferson [and] the high priest of the pasture" and profiled in the Academy Award nominated documentary Food, Inc. and the bestselling book The Omnivore's Dilemma, understands what food should be: Wholesome, seasonal, raised naturally, procured locally, prepared lovingly, and eaten with a profound reverence for the circle of life. And his message doesn't stop there. From child-rearing, to creating quality family time, to respecting the environment, Salatin writes with a wicked sense of humor and true storyteller's knack for the revealing anecdote.

    Salatin's crucial message and distinctive voice--practical, provocative, scientific, and down-home philosophical in equal measure--make FOLKS, THIS AIN'T NORMAL a must-read book.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateOct 10, 2011
    ISBN9781611137057
    Unavailable
    Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World

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    Reviews for Folks, This Ain't Normal

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    • 4/5
      I was fortunate enough to see Mr. Salatin speak during his book tour, and he was engaging, funny, and passionate. I came away from that presentation convinced that he has crucial insights into where we've gone wrong in favoring the industrial over the local, especially with regard to food. The book definitely adds weight to the arguments he put forth during his speaking engagement.

      This book did surprise me in some ways. It's more overtly political than I expected, and the tone is a bit curmudgeonly. It's funny, and satirical, but at times it reminded me of that grumpy old guy with the house on the corner who's always yelling at the kids to stay off of his lawn. ;-)

      The points about the benefits of traditional (a.k.a., "normal") local food systems vs. the modern ("abnormal") industrial food systems certainly convinced me. What I honestly did not realize was how profoundly government agencies / oversight ("the food police") - and the lobbying of well-intentioned but naive environmentalists (myself included, I'm afraid) - have crippled the efforts of local producers like Salatin and like-minded independent farmers. Salatin rails against the USDA, the FDA, the FSIS, the IRS, and other federal bureaucracies that have made his life (and livelihood) a living hell over the years.

      Salatin points out that the federal regulatory regimes supposedly intended to ensure food safety (and generally supported by "greenies") are in actuality tools of the very industrial producers they're ostensibly designed to check. In his experience, the mega-sized agribusinesses and their lobbyists cozy up to legislators to make certain that the new regs favor their "mass-production" model while shutting out innovation from smaller local producers. The costs of compliance are manageable for a huge operation but are utterly prohibitive for small-scale operations like Polyface Farms. Often, well-meaning environmentalists who believe "the agribusinesses can't be trusted" become unwitting co-conspirators by supporting these heavyweight regulations to the detriment of the small farmers they ultimately want to help.

      Salatin's libertarian streak is evident throughout the book as he rants against the IRS, the nanny state, and federal oversight in general, bemoaning the loss of personal responsibility. He also ridicules the "connected world," the willingness of most of America to suckle on celebrity gossip and reality TV, and the plague of kids playing XBox instead of doing home & garden chores. I see a lot of truth in what he has to say, but (as an info technology pro for my day job) I struggled with the extreme positions he sometimes takes. No TV in the house? If the Salatins have made that work for decades, that's awesome, but I don't think it's a terribly practical admonition for most of America.

      Overall, this was an entertaining and educational read. Similarly to Bill McKibben's advice in "Eaarth," Salatin believes decentralizing and reducing regulation (and federal government intervention in general) are our best shots at restoring some semblance of normality to our lives. He makes a strong case on many fronts. When I look at the complete ineptitude in the U.S. Congress these days, a major downsizing (and corresponding reduction in federal taxes) makes a lot of sense. Hey, Washington, D.C., let us eat what we want - we don't need your approval to know it's healthy! And it doesn't have to be bathed in chlorine or irradiated to make it safe to eat if it's grown in a clean environment to begin with!!!
    • 2/5
      Sigh: another book for which I would like to write two separate reviews.First review - First half of book. Salatin talks farming. He knows farming: through & through, forwards, backwards & sideways, & he expresses this knowledge very well. It's very polemical, & the tone is quite folksy, but it's worth overcoming any reticence you might have about that: this book is worth reading. Salatin lucidly describes where we, in North America anyway, are at with regards to sustainable farming & how we got here. He is always sympathetic to the farmers who took us down this road of chemical fertilisers, etc, because they were making the best choices they could with the equipment available at the time. But now, we know better, we can do better, we should do better. Splendid! Four stars.Second review - second half of book. Salatin talks regulation, labour, history. If he'd stuck to talking about his personal experiences with regulators & why he thinks those experiences were crazy, this would have been one four-star review for a much shorter book. But he didn't.As he talks about the history of regulations in the food supply system, he never betrays any hint of understanding the system that brought them into place. He flatly declares that "nobody was getting sick", then admits that there was not so much available in terms of scientifically confirming food poisoning (much less statistics generated from reporting & tracking systems). Maybe the people who were demanding food inspections had some motivation for doing so? (Maybe they were getting sick & knew what had made them sick?)He believes that unregulated, uninspected free commerce would solve all of our problems: I assume he is unaware of the problems this very system created in the late-nineteenth century which led to regulations? He thinks we should be able to sign away our rights to sue if what we get isn't what we ordered. He declares "America has always honored work. We even have a Labor Day holiday." Can he really be so historically illiterate?!In short: the second half of the book is basically Salatin BSing about stuff he doesn't even seem to have given much though to. Is the system as it is broken? Yes, probably, but nothing constructive has even been accomplished by indiscriminately smashing systems one doesn't understand. Also, slight quibble here: the second half makes quite clear that this book is a marketing exercise for Salatin's farm. He quotes specific testing results on his own products without reference to any other producer. He doesn't even provide a list of farmers he's trained who could be expected to provide similar results (though he does mention repeatedly - vaguely - that he does have graduates running independent farms... Somewhere.). Several conspiracy theories also factor into this part of the book.Anyway: second half of book: 1.5 stars. Read the first half, but if you find yourself getting bogged down in the second: drop it, it doesn't get better.
    • 4/5
      Joel Salatin's writing and speaking are always delightful, always challenging, always a healthy and needed dose of "normal".
    • 3/5
      I found this an interesting and engaging read. Salatin's frustration with the industrialisation of food production comes through loud and clear, turning the book into more of a harangue than anything else some of the time. The anecdotes about children's ignorance of food and cooking were heartbreaking, as was the chapter on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.I admire Salatin's determination to make a family-run, sustainable farm a viable business and am amazed by the persistence and tenacity he displays in achieving that goal and the erudition he displays in promoting it. I don't agree with everything he says, but I am sure that the sustainable farming world needs as many people like him as it can get.
    • 4/5
      Joel Salatin has become very well known in some circles for his "unconventional" approach to farming (raising animals on grass and rebuilding the land), traditional foods, and heavily libertarian politics. In Folks... he continues. Nothing is sacred, covering the benefits of grass-fed animals, raising your own food, not relying on supermarkets, the beauty of living land, and rallying against government oversight. I don't agree with all of his politics, because I think there are enough shady folks in the world who would ruin it for people with integrity like Salatin, but I can see where he would have that viewpoint. I also think he's right in talking about what we miss as a culture and people by being so separated from the land and our food.
    • 4/5
      I really feel for the editor of this book. In all honesty, the text could probably have used a bit more work. There are some really good points in here but the organization isn't always effective. There are some paragraphs that feel repetitive, some related ideas spread between chapters when they would've been more effective presented side-by-side, and some redundancies.However, I'm glad that they let Joel Salatin's voice come through on the page. I didn't agree with everything he says but he certainly explains where he's coming from and he comes across as very genuine and honest. I think much of that would have been lost with harsh editing.And, style aside, the content is amazing. He has stories worth hearing and advice worth heeding.
    • 5/5
      Great insights on our broken food "safety" machinations from a great conversational reader (and writer). Much enjoyed, appreciated -- and cherished. Thank you Joel!
    • 5/5
      Fantastic book. It really was an eye opener to the current madness that is engulfing our food industry!
    • 5/5
      This book literally brought me to tears by the end of it. The epiphanies and realizations it offers not only to farmers or want to be farmers but to Americans is incomparable. To understand how we voluntarily and ignorantly give away our rights to even choose what we consume is mind blowing. My life and how I look at the most mundane of it (like frying eggs every morning) has changed. I personally thank Joel for writing and reading this book. I thank him for caring enough to be passionate about what should be considered normal and shining a light on the truth behind what too many of us don't even think about. My advice is to listen or read this book and decide for yourself what ain't normal. I guarantee you will be googling where you can find some real food. I also guarantee you will at least think about your perspectives on government regulations.
    • 4/5
      Oh, Joel Salatin, you fascinating curmudgeon. If the mild and joyful farmer’s memoirs leave you wanting more, jump into the thick of the agribusiness food debate with Joel. He’s challenging, interesting, and highly opinionated. I can almost guarantee that something in this book will tick you off, but some other part will almost certainly prove totally compelling. You may not agree with him, but he’ll certainly give you plenty to think about.
    • 3/5
      In his introduction to Joel Salatin’s recent book Folks, This Ain’t Normal, Allan Nation says Salatin pulls no punches, which “completely discombobulates” audiences who expect a slow-local food advocate to be a leftist hippie. In this book, Salatin proudly displays his religiosity, his social conservatism, and his political libertarianism — so much so, in fact, that these elements threaten to distract the reader from his central point.

      That point is that a food system dominated by multinational corporations, in which local production is seen as eccentric and local markets are discouraged by heavy-handed regulation, is fundamentally abnormal and in the long run, suicidal. And that historically, extended, multigenerational families are normal. Salatin is arguing for old-fashioned values he calls “connection, heritage, tradition.” I agree with him on all these points.

      The book is really a series of essays that all circle around this central theme. Some of them are excellent, and would probably work well as free-standing articles or as chapters to read in a class (Environmental History, for instance). “Children, Chores, Humility, and Health” is one of these. It begins with a discussion of firewood that dwells on the physical details and shows an intimate knowledge of the subject drawn from a lifetime of experience, and then continues to a discussion of freedom, responsibility, and growing up on a farm. And it provides this point, for grounding the discussion: “As recently as 1946, nearly 50 percent of all produce grown in America came out of backyard gardens” (p. 13).

      In the next chapter, Salatin says “No long-term example exists in which tillage is sustainable. It always requires injection of biomass from outside the system or a soil-development pasture cycle” (20). This is an interesting claim, and it may well have an element of truth to it; but it (and the chapter) seems motivated by Salatin’s desire to debunk the vegetarians who argue against meat (especially beef) production and consumption. “Judgmentalism combined with ignorance is a dangerous combination,” Salatin warns (30). And he makes a series of points I agree with: CAFOs suck, and the fact “That a large percentage of landfilled material is animal-edible food waste” really should “strike us as criminal.” But he goes on to claim “nobody goes hungry due to lack of food. They go hungry due to lack of distribution” (32); which suggests that we could feed as many people animal protein as we could feed vegetable protein, if we could just get the system right. Salatin believes the whole world can be fed on meat, if we would just go back to pasturage rather than grain-feeding. Whether this is true or not, he’s clearly right that a lot of the marginal land that’s in crop production would be more sustainable as rangeland.

      Talking about local food production, Salatin points out that it takes fifteen calories to get a calorie of food onto the average American table, and four of those calories are transportation (67). And he points out that the key to local food viability is “a seasonal eating commitment” (68). “Unless and until the East and North step up to their bioregional responsibilities,” he continues, “California will be unable to feed itself” (69) But again, “half of all the food fit for human consumption never gets eaten,” because of long-distance transport and warehousing. This is incredibly inefficient, and will seem more so as petroleum prices rise. And then there’s the frivolous use of resources instead of farming: “America has thirty-five million acres of lawn and thirty-six million acres devoted to housing and feeding recreational horses, and that doesn’t even count golf courses,” Salatin says (76). And if people “really wanted to save water, how about attacking flush toilets that use potable water?” (34) Another good point.

      Salatin suggests as a rule of thumb “to only eat food that was available before 1900” (109). He has some very interesting things to say about the Progressive Era and its effect on farming, and also about writers like Edward Faulkner (Plowman’s Folly, 1943) and Newman Turner (Fertility Farming, 1951) who argued against the agro-industrial model right from the start. These authors all deserve a closer look (129ff).

      Salatin says “By denying the herbivores access to a paddock until the grass has rested enough to go through that middle rapid growth period of the S curve, we metabolize far more sunlight into biomass than would otherwise occur…And if every farm and ranch that has cows in the United States would practice this biomimicry, in fewer than ten years we would sequester all the atmospheric carbon generated since the beginning of the industrial age. For more information, visit Holistic Management International and Carbon Farmers of America—two groups doing the empirical analysis and demonstrating the efficacy of these principles” (195-196). If this is true, it is very cool!

      So Salatin makes a bunch of really good points, which for me are slightly marred by the number of times he says “Jesus never said” this or that. And I got the point about the food police without needing to read quite so much about how Salatin and his friends have been inconvenienced by the USDA and FDA. And calling Abraham Lincoln “an idiotic dreamer” is going a bit far beyond what was needed to make his point. This type of “pulling no punches” just annoys and alienates people. I’m surprised Salatin’s editors let him indulge himself to this degree. And when he goes after “the tax-and-spend crowd [who] dishonor hardworking Americans” and “government manipulation of the housing market, by demanding that high-risk loans be made to unqualified people,” Salatin is exposing his dependence on the Fox echo-chamber for his perspective on recent events. Again, how the editors thought these passages were a good way to advance his theme is just beyond me.

      Maybe Salatin has become to big a celebrity on the speaking circuit, to the point where he thinks he’s got something to say on any topic, not just the ones where he has a lifetime of experience and a thorough command of all the details. The excesses he allows himself in this book detract from its force, but Folks, This Ain’t Normal is still an important contribution to the slow-local food cause.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I love Joel Salatin. He is a crazy libertarian organic farmer in Virginia. I have his EVERYTHING I WANT TO DO IS ILLEGAL; and I've read his YOU CAN FARM. The latter is his attempt to inspire and instruct young people considering embarking on a life of farming. I loved it, even though there is no way I am ever going to become a farmer. Here, Salatin rants about how far we have gotten away from "normal" (hence the title) with our industrial food system. He ends each chapter with positive suggestions, some more realistic than others, for taking individual action to end the insanity and start doing something normal again - growing a tomato plant, keeping chickens as pets, etc.This totally resonated with me. The crazy thing I've always thought about books along the lines of "My Year of Growing All My Own Food" and such, is that they treat what used to be normal as a miracle - indeed, case in point, the title of Barbara Kingsolver's ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE. What we think is fodder for an entire book used to just be LIFE. Of course your grew your own food. People of 200 years ago would be might puzzled that anyone would want to read or write a book about it.It's NORMAL. Salatin uses the word "birthright" in this book; it was actually in reference to hunting, but I like to think of it in relation to the whole shebang of agriculture and enjoying nature. It's our BIRTHRIGHT.The book is repetitive and ranty, not exactly a masterpiece of literature, but it has been so inspiring to me, I go with 5 stars. I'm inspired to actually double down on my local food intake. I'm researching local grain and upgrading my dairy; I'm using more butter in place of vegetable oils (big sacrifice there, not); just putting a lot more thought into it. And I wasn't exactly unconscious to begin with.Salatin even ends the book by confiding in us an experience where he actually broke down in tears as he was about to leave his homestead for a month or two, a very long stretch of traveling for him. He had to stop the car and cry before he had even left the lane leading to his house. I'm touched, I really am.And although I no longer identify as libertarian - and was not interested in the rants against the government which at times lurked just below surface, and at other times reared their ugly heads - I have to say simply that there's something refreshing in reading arguments for organic, back-to-the-land living coming from a place other than basic hippie liberal. It's just different and enlightening and proves that these things don't have to be "polarized." Everyone benefits from better food. It's ridiculous that this should be a politically one-sided issue - like climate change.
    • 3/5
      He's not wrong about farming, but the contempt and lack of empathy that informs his libertarianism can't help but shine through. Felt like mansplaining.