Joel Salatin, one of the nation’s leading exponents of sustainable agriculture – in particular, grass farming – will speak at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, in Cole Hall at Bridgewater College.
In 1961, Salatin’s parents purchased a worn-out and eroded farm in Swoope. By planting trees, building huge compost piles, digging ponds, moving cows daily with portable electric fencing and inventing portable sheltering systems, the family built up a farm that now supports three generations.
Returning to the family farm in 1982, Salatin continued to refine and add to his parents’ ideas. The farm, Polyface Inc., services more than 1,500 families, 10 retail outlets and 30 restaurants through on-farm sales and metropolitan buying clubs.
Salatin, who has a B.A. degree in English, is the author of a number of books including Holy Cows and Hog Heaven, Family Friendly Farming and Everything I Want to Do is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front. The farm of many faces has been featured in Smithsonian, National Geographic and Gourmet and as the foundation of one meal in Michael Pollan’s bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
The convocation is sponsored by the W. Harold Row Endowed Lecture Series and is open to the public at no charge.