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

This is The Omnivore's Dilemma with a teaspoon of local yokel and a tablespoon of political swagger. Author Joel Salatin is a proud foodie libertarian, and if you sense an oxymoron in that pairing, you'll need to read his no-nonsense book to get the lowdown.

Yep. Joel wants to kick some ass. Mostly big government ass. Strangely enough, he finds himself allied with all the liberal Democrat foodies when it comes down to what we should be eating. It's the government that drives him mad. The "food police," as he calls them, who hide under the auspices of letters like FDA and USDA and FSIS and do their best to put little guys (read: your local farmer) out of business with onerous regulations and expensive licenses that only the big boys (Monsanto, Cargill, Tyson, et al) can afford.

How convenient. The very Big Food players who rotate employees and lawyers with the U.S. government in the name of protecting us. As Joel says repeatedly in this book: "Folks, this ain't normal."

Salatin is not only a farmer, he's a scientist who's done his homework on health, nutrition, and agriculture. As he points out, there are scientists and there are scientists. When the government lays out food rules in favor of Big Food, they always do it "in the name of science," but it's the same science that advocates genetic modification of food, irradiation of food, wholesale use of pesticides, herbicides, and gassing, cloning, additives, mass vaccinations and antibiotics, CAFOs, etc.

Right. Science in Big Food's back pocket. Scientists and lawyers who supposedly know more about food than your local farmer does. "Folks, this ain't normal."

And if you think having a Democrat in the White House whose wife is into health, nutrition, and gardening is of some comfort, think again. Salatin writes: "President Obama named Michael Taylor, the longtime Monsanto attorney who shepherded transgenic modification into the world, as his food czar. Taylor will be officially interpreting what the Food Modernization Act's demand for 'science-based' food requirements means. This phrase, brand-new in history, is used eleven times in the final law. Whose science will it be?"

In a word: Monsanto's. Oh. And President Obama's, whose selection for Sec. of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, is also in bed with Big Food and their bankrolled "scientists."

More vintage Salatin:

"Food safety is completely subjective. I don't think for a minute that most of what's in the supermarket is safe. But it's been deemed safe because it only kills you slowly. While thousands of people die due to unnatural food and nutrient-deprived food, the food police go after a cottage-industry cheesemaker because two people get diarrhea."


The chapters is this book run the gamut, from dissertations on composting toilets to down-and-dirty agronomy lessons to, yes, even Obamacare (stretching it, but it came with his Libertarian rant), so clearly you may enjoy some parts more than others. Still, Salatin's is an interesting voice. And an informative one. And certainly a lively one.

I may not agree with 100% of what Joel Salatin writes, but I agree with the vast majority, right down to the fact that libertarians and foodies make strange bedfellows who might just find good reason (before it's too late) join forces and defeat the well-heeled and entrenched dragons that besiege us from Washington.

If you care about food, you should give it a read.