An Evening with Joel Salatin
APRIL 20, 2012
First Presbyterian Church,
2407 Dana Street, Berkeley, CA 94704-2207
Joel Salatin
A third-generation alternative farmer in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, joined us in Berkeley to discuss symbiotic farming, local food, and the ethical and spiritual thread that “connects the field to the plate.” Joel’s family farm, Polyface Farm, is an innovative model of community-supported agriculture that seeks to develop emotionally, economically, and environmentally sustainable agricultural enterprises. Joel and his farm are featured in the movies Fresh and Food Inc, and in Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore's Dilemma.
If you were unable to join us for the event the discussion is posted here
Through ticket sales for this event Project Peace was able to donate $2,500 to both People's Grocery and Oakland Food Connection. Thank you to everyone who purchased tickets to made this donation possible.
FIRST TALK: 7:00 PM - Joel Discusses The Ethics and Beauty of Sustainable Farming and Eating
Industrial food is aesthetically and aromatically unpleasant from production to supermarket. Although eating is arguably the most intimate thing humans do--next to the act of marriage--during the last few decades Americans have lost their dinner dance partner. Culinary skills and local food connections have been replaced with "No Trespassing" signs, bureaucratic paperwork, unpronounceable labels, bar codes, and beeping cash registers.
The soul-satisfying act of eating is now a sterile, manufactured to-do item snarfed up on the run. Amidst this frenetic lifestyle, the neglected dinner dance partner beckons to return . . . at the farm, at farmers' markets, Community Supported Agriculture drop points, and in the kitchen. Polyface Farm's choreographed plant-animal symbiosis heals the landscape, the community, and the eater. A theatrical performance mixing humor and bomb-shell food system analysis, Salatin's stemwinder educates, entertains, and encourages
SECOND TALK: 8:10 PM - JOEL TALKS ABOUT HOW HIS FAITH INFORMS HIS FARMING PRACTICES
What does a Bible-based farm look like? Does God care? What do Creator worshippers need to know about creation ethics? As a self-described Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer, Joel Salatin tackles these questions with humor and passion from a lifetime of meditation in the field and desire to bring the farm into captivity with the glory of God.
