A Nasty Note from Joel Salatin

You might remember this guy, Joel Salatin, as the self-righteous farmer quoted in Crunchy Cons who implied that you couldn't be a true Christian and work in the agriculture industry unless you did things his way, i.e., organic pigs, small, local and what-not. If readers of Crunchy Cons forget him I'm not surprised. His over-the-top statements just melt into the high-pitch background of scolding dogma which is the warp and woof of standard Crunchy Conservative judgmentalism. It seems to me like Salatin is vying to become the successor to the throne of Wendell Berry, although I'm not sure he's against electricity.

Here's the recent rant from Salatin in which the squeal goes up another octave. He's mainly reacting to a speech given by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack at a Democrat fund raiser in which Vilsack points out that 40% of the US Military comes from rural America even though rural America represents only 16% of the US population. This is horrible news to him as someone who wants to see more people entering the farming industry. Here's his reaction in his words:

Are you ready? Here’s his answer: although rural America only has 16 percent of the population, it gives 40 percent of the personnel to the military. Say what? You mean when it’s all said and done, at the end of the day, the bottom line–you know all the cliches–the whole reason for increasing farms is to provide cannon fodder for American imperial might. He said rural kids grow up with a sense of wanting to give something back, and if we lose that value system, we’ll lose our military might.

Emphasis mine, I don't know about you, but I'm not going to go up to a member of the military from rural America—Sergeant Theresa Vail, to use an example from recent news—and tell her she is "cannon fodder". First of all, she'd kick my ass in short order, but more importantly because I respect the US military more than any other government institution. Pew says I'm in the majority with regard to this opinion and my guess is Vilsack knew his statement would resonate well with at least 78% of the invitees in that room.

Is the "cannon fodder" remark just an off-the-cuff angry outburst of Salatin's which we can excuse? I don't think so. Aside from the fact that he put it into writing, he does so twice. Here's his second use of the term, again with my emphasis:

But to think that my agenda is key to building the American military–now that’s a cause for pause. I will redouble my efforts to help folks remember why we need more farmers. It’s not to provide cannon fodder for Wall Street imperialistic agendas. It’s to grow food that nourishes, land that’s aesthetically and aromatically sensually romantic, build soil, hydrate raped landscapes, and convert more solar energy into biomass than nature would in a static state.

Again, you have to think about what members of the military would think if you went up to them and told them they were "cannon fodder for Wall Street imperialistic agendas". Have you ever met people who have lost hands and arms in accidents of an agricultural nature? I have; but I will spare you the details. Suffice to say I'd rather have a 7.62x39 round in me than to undergo what some of them underwent. So—were they "cannon fodder" for the food industry? The people I'm talking about got hurt working for family farms, not huge agribusiness enterprises.

The piece gets sillier, nastier and more and more shrill until the last sentence, "Here’s to more healthy worms," squeaks out. Speaking these five words seems to be the perfect way to end this rant. I advise everyone to read it in its entirety to get a taste of how lunatic rage reads in print. My main takeaway is as long as these people continue to overstate their case with this fever pitch of poisonous rhetoric the world will be safe from their ideas. They blow their credibility whenever they speak in anger, which is to say practically every time they speak on a topic. There is nothing Christian about elevating the greatness of your profession and career choices above that of others. And let it be known that I have plenty of huge, healthy, organic earthworms in my backyard; thank you very much for your kind offer to take care of them.