You are what you eat . How often did you hear your mother say that ? Or a teacher at school day ? A well - intend health professional ? We are what we eat , and we are what weeateats . A sentiment that was cursorily lose in the era of foodstuff computer memory and wash room food , many of us — and our children and our parent — have lost touch with the most introductory law of consumption : We are only as healthy as the food for thought Ernst Boris Chain of hands .
I had the pleasance of meet Joel Salatin ofPolyface Farmat an result in Asheville , North Carolina , in the natural spring of 2014 . Salatin co - possess , with his house , Polyface Farm in Swoope , Virginia , and was sport inThe New York TimesbestsellerThe Omnivore ’s Dilemma(2006 ) by Michael Pollan , and the award - winning documentaryFood Inc.(2008 ) . Salatin is also a noted author on agriculture topics .
At the back of a poulet - processing demonstration he was award , I stand and recoil my catnap babe in a attack aircraft carrier drench up every word and recommendation . I had understand several of his books , and even books that featured him , but just as we ca n’t fully grasp the reality of parenthood until it ’s in our midst , I had n’t fully grasped the how critically linked my chicken ’s diet was to my own or my child ’s .
InThe Omnivore ’s Dilemma , Salatin shared a revelation : We have been conjointly casting aside the critical function of grass in our ruminants ’ diet in party favor of cheap , genetically change grains , something we either have n’t cared to admit or have n’t thought enough about .
“ We do not honor grass , ” Salatin said . “ We honorcornand cotton wool and Glycine max and Timothy Miles Bindon Rice [ and ] sugarcane . Those are the five subsidize commodities in this land . Grass is like the surly step - farmer . ”
His item was mere : If we respect , cultivate and graze our beast on grass , they will be goodly consume what they are designed to eat on , and we will be healthier for it . Everyone who raises chickens , cows and other grazers would do well to become a grass sodbuster .
The tenet of grass husbandry is bare : Care for the grass by mimicking the natural habits of grazers and the rhythm of nature , and you will grow healthy animals and healthier meat and eggs . Grass farming involve commitment and education , but as Salatin said , it ’s a lot more fun than conventional farming .
On Salatin ’s farm , animals are rotated daily to give the Gunter Grass rest and rejuvenation , and in a special order to mime the agency animals would graze in nature : Birds follow the herbivores . cow keep the grass short , so the birds — chickens , dud and so on — can reach the freshlyexposed louse and curt grass .
( They ca n’t handle tackle the marvellous grass on their own . ) The doll find fault through the cow patty to spread the manure , profit the oxen and the soil / grass , and “ harvest ” the fly sheet larvae ( a natural root of nutrition ) .
The final result is a beautifully orchestrated dance of imagination and musical harmony , as nigh to perfect as agriculture can get : healthy animals , healthy land , good for you human bodies .
Grass farming has larger implications , and they ’re ones we should all be weigh . By rotate ley daily , large amounts of biomass can be reduplicate and tripled as the land heals . In using this method , we could help to change by reversal our impact on clime modification in abouta decade .
According to Salatin , if we just increase soil organic topic on the pasture lands of the United State by a unmarried percentage point , we could sequester all of that carbon copy that ’s been emitted since the outset of the Industrial Age .
This story originally appear in the November / December 2018 issue ofHobby Farmsmagazine .
