Joel Salatin: Want To Improve American Healthcare? Buy Local Food

Filed under: In The News — @ October 22, 2009

ATTENTION LLVLC PODCAST FANS! In 2009, I’ve been able to interview some of the biggest names in diet, health, and nutrition and I need your help deciding which ones you thought were the best of the best. Just as we did with the best of 2008 during our special “Encore Week” presentation in January, we’re gonna do it again in the first week of 2010 with the best of 2009. E-mail me your TOP THREE favorite interview guests from 2009 along with any follow-up questions you would like for me to ask them and why you are voting for them to livinlowcarbman@charter.net. I will be taking nominations through November 30, 2009 so I can follow-up with your five most-requested podcast guests. Think back through who you REALLY liked and want to hear more from and then send me their names and any follow-up questions you’d like for me to ask them. This was so much fun last year and I can’t wait to see who you want to hear more from!

Local farmer Joel Salatin shares about the bureaucracy of the food industry

I don’t know when it started, but there is a growing dissatisfaction beginning to stir up among people about the quality of their food. That’s why people are no longer happy with just settling for the selections available to them at their grocery stores and instead are turning to local farmers for delicious and nutritious pastured eggs, raw milk, grass-fed beef, and fresh organic produce. While the supermarkets are trying to take advantage of this growing trend by using selective adjectives in their stores, the truth is you can only get the good stuff by buying locally. My interview guest today is extremely passionate about this subject since it is his livelihood.

In Episode 298 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we hear from Virginia-based farmer Joel Salatin from Polyface Farms who was featured in Michael Pollan’s incredible The Omnivore’s Dilemma book as well as the stunning 2008 expository documentary Food, Inc. Joel grew up on a local farm and knows all the ins and outs of these dwindling national treasures to the fabric of American society. He has authored such compelling, thought-provoking books as Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front and Holy Cows And Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer’s Guide To Farm Friendly Food and is enthusiastic about defending local food and all the benefits it provides compared with industrialized farms.

Listen to Joel share about the bureaucratic obstacles he faces each day to bring food to the market, why local food tends to be more expensive than food you purchase in the supermarket, why it is impossible for local grass-fed beef to be tainted with E. Coli, the battles he faces trying to bring real food to consumers who want it, his willingness to stand up to the “food police” who try to push him around, how the local food from local farmers trend is similar to the home-schooling movement, the government roadblocks to getting good quality food, why the healthcare “crisis” we are being told about right now is really a “diet” crisis, the work he is doing to “heal the land” of other local farms, and so much more. You can’t help but sense the enthusiasm Joel has for this subject matter and I hope you are encouraged that local food is alive and well in the United States today!

Click here to listen to my interview with local foodie activist Joel Salatin.