Chapter Eight: All Flesh Is Grass

1. GREEN ACRES

Meet Joel and his grass fed cows.

Pollan found himself on Joel Salatin's farm on the first day of summer, along with Daniel Salatin (his son) and two helpers. Unlike the genetically-modified corn farm Pollan had visited, the Salatin farm in the Shenandoah Valley wasn't a monoculture, it didn't have the roar of farm machinery, and its place in society is still a question. "I'd come here . . . to see whether such a farm, and the alternative food chain it is part of, belonged to the past or the future." The pastoral beauty was dotted with happy animals, a brook, woods and a grassy pasture. This wonder, this beauty that survived the industrial farms, proves that "the old pastoral idea is alive and, if not well exactly, still useful, perhaps even necessary."



Everyone benefits from
Salatin's grasses.

2. THE GENIUS OF THE PLACE
"I'm a grass farmer." Polyface farm (the one Salatin maintains) is 550 acres of chickens, cows, turkeys, rabbits, pigs, tomatoes, sweet corn, berries, and forests. But Salatin isn't a chicken farmer, or a corn farmer--nope, he's a grass farmer. Grass is the foundation for the food chain so delicately assembled at Polyface, which has led to its position as one of the "most productive and influential alternative farms in America." But why grass? Grass takes up the natural energy of the sun and, through photosynthesis, converts carbon dioxide and water into sugars, which is essentially energy. These grasses (of which there are dozens of species: from orchard grass, to red clover, the dandelion, Queen Anne's lace, foxtail, bluegrass...) are all food for the roaming cattle and other large animals, who eat the grass, digest it, obtain nutrients and poop out the waste. The chickens, in their Eggmobile, clean up after herbivores, eating the grubs and larvae out of the poop. They spread the manure to give nutrients back to the grasses, eliminate parasites and eat nutrients that lead to tasty eggs. There is no need for parasiticides when there are chickens, and no need for antibacterial drugs when the cows eat 

The Eggmobile: just one part of Salatin's
amazing farming cycle.


grass diets (the bacteria in their stomach cannot survive the pH of the grass in the stomach, but thrive in the corn diet of the stomach). These costs,and health problems are eliminated. Besides the animals, the forest helps the soil from eroding and blowing away, and the stream provides water to the pasture. Even the bugs and fungi below the surface help to put back nutrients into the grass, then the cow, then the chicken then the egg. It's the perfect ecological circle--and Salatin is just there to direct it, and make sure nature's course runs smoothly. Humans have co-evolved with grasses: from our hunter-gatherer stage to our agriculture stage. It's a wonder we have left this miracle and replaced it with corn. *If you read just one chapter in this section--I recommend this one. I was in awe at how flawless this whole cycle is. I'm amazed and saddened that more people don't farm like this.*
3. INDUSTRIAL ORGANIC
Naylor Farm: Industrial, annual species, monoculture, fossil fuels, global market, specialized, mechanical, imported fertility, myriad inputs
Polyface Farm: Pastoral, perennial species, polyculture, solar energy, local market, diversified, biological, local fertility, chicken feed
Salatin, an "organic" farmer in Virginia, actually doesn't care for the federal government's new organic standards. So what is more "organic?" Salatin's food or an imported good at the grocery store that says organic? Are organic flowers from Peru really better than locally grown ones that don't match exactly to federal specifications? Salatin, like many other people, believe the answer is no. "We never called ourselves organic--we call ourselves 'beyond organic.' Why dumb down to a lesser level than we are?" In this section, Pollan is begin to question the term "industrial organic," and decides to take a trip touring the organic empire.