by Joel Salatin
402pp.
Holy Cows and Hog Heaven may be the best introduction to Joel Salatin and his work, but this book is probably his most important. It is certainly his most heartfelt book, an attempt to convey the depth of the vision that drives his efforts.
Salatin's vision centers on multi-generational family life, which he argues is best centered around a home-based business. The vision is not a pipedream; Salatin has lived it out as he and his family have built and refined their own home-based business, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. His farm is thriving, and his wife, mother, daughter, son, daughter-in-law, and grandson all contribute to its operation.
Life in the Salatin family is good, and he passionately wants to share some of the wisdom that has made it so. Because of that passion, this book sprawls and occasionally meanders, as Salatin tackles issues where his thinking has not developed into a neatly summarizable solution. However, this is one of Family Friendly Farming's hidden strengths; Salatin has chosen not to be cautious in sharing his wisdom, and as a result the reader often encounters thoughts that are not gems on a shelf, but rather fodder for his own further thinking.
Modern folks have a hard time getting their heads around the fact that as recently as 1830 almost the entire country (95%, to be exact) lived—and thrived—on a multi-generational family farm which provided for nearly all their needs. Nowadays we think of farm life as an intolerable drudgery which most of us are fortunate to have been spared. Family Friendly Farming is an antidote to such poisoned thinking, explaining the many ways in which such a home-centered way of life is markedly better than the urban industrial existence we lead today.
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