Page 59 - Spring2008

All Thumbs Book Reviews

Nonetheless, Letters from an American Farmer merely smokescreens for much more sinister
continued to hold the imagination of European motives. “If it’s the government’s responsibility
readers and was reprinted numerous times. The to make sure that no person can ingest a morsel
book has never attained the same popularity on of unsafe food, then only government food will
these shores, however. be edible. And when that happens, freedom of
Picking up Joel Salatin’s newest literary choice is long gone, because the credentialed food
endeavor, this reader felt the emotional resurrec- will be what the fat cats who wine and dine politi-
tion of the founding agrarian ideals of Jefferson cians say that it is. In the name of offering only
and Crèvecoeur in full, modern-day force. Every- credentialed safe food, we will only be able to
thing I Want to Do is Illegal is an impassioned cri eat irradiated, genetically adulterated, inhumane,
de coeur of a beleaguered member of that once- taste-enhanced, nutrient-defi cient, emulsifi ed,
ennobled population of American farmers. No reconstituted pseudo-food from Archer Daniels
longer a freeholder on his own land, restrained Midland, ‘supermarket to the world.’”
and fettered by regulatory agencies that seem Salatin is angry and with good reason.
to have his total eradication as their goal, the He and his family have struggled for years with
American small farmer is an endangered spe- inane regulations that were written with only
cies. Although there are barely as many small industrial-scale food production technologies in
farmers now as inmates in U.S. federal prisons, mind, and that demanded small-scale operations
the fate of farmers is intimately tied to all of us either match or go out of business. This last op-
who believe that we still have the right to feed tion is, of course, exactly what thousands of small
ourselves and our families as we choose. farmers have succumbed to over the years and
Salatin has chosen to illuminate the climate still do. As Salatin says, “the systematic dissec-
and geographical terrain of the “war zone” he tion of small, local food systems” is the obvious
inhabits as an entrepreneurial farmer by relating agenda of bureaucrats who are in bed with big
actual encounters with regulators that he and his ag.
family have endured while trying to make a liv- Everything I Want to Do is Illegal contains
ing and providing their customers with the best chapters on food safety issues that will perma-
food possible. The blood-boiling encounters are nently turn the reader off any food from central-
many, and the reader quickly becomes familiar ized, industrial sources. Salatin’s examination of
with the Gordian Knot-style obstacles the regula- the current state of oversight within this system
tory agencies throw in Salatin’s path. proves it to be exquisitely vulnerable to bioter-
If anyone could be a match to their mon- rorism with absolutely no effective government
strously confounding, illogical rules and regula- or industry precautions in force. The regulators
tions, it is Salatin, and occasionally he was able are too busy overseeing small farmers out of busi-
to win the day through creative solutions that ness, while consumers’ food options dwindle.
were grudgingly, though often only temporarily, Chapters on other farm-related activities I would
accepted. However, as Salatin points out time invoke regulation fi ascos in such areas as zoning, suggest that
and again, if the true aims of the endless regu- child labor, housing, insurance, and taxes, and are
lations were actually clean meat, public safety, fertile topics for Salatin to develop his theme. A it takes a
and a healthy food supply, Salatin’s Polyface farm is not just a producer of raw materials, he community to
Farms would long ago have been held up as a repeats, but a vital, living organism that enriches preserve
golden model for study and replication around and is enriched by the community it belongs
the country. In fact, these legitimate aims are to. “I would suggest that it takes a community a farm.
SPRING 2008 Wise Traditions 59