Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Drawing upon 40 years experience as an ecological farmer and marketer, Joel Salatin explains with humor and passion why Americans do not have the freedom to choose the food they purchase and eat. From child labor regulations to food inspection, bureaucrats provide themselves sole discretion over what food is available in the local marketplace. Their system favors industrial, global corporate food systems and discourages community-based food commerce, resulting in homogenized selection, mediocre quality, and exposure to non-organic farming practices. Salatins expert insight explains why local food is expensive and difficult to find and will illuminate for the reader a deeper understanding of the industrial food complex.

Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...

2 out of 5 stars

Beware! October 30, 2007
251 out of 354 found this review helpful

I'm a grass-fed livestock farmer living near Joel Salatin and have visited his farm and bought his products many times. This book does accurately reflect who Joel is: funny, blunt, knowledgeable (about some topics), charismatic, certainly a pioneer.

However, beware of making assumptions about Joel. The vast majority of his customers and fans are interested in organic foods, have an environmentalist bent, and are politically liberal. They may assume that Joel is like them -- but be assured that he certainly is not. Joel hates all those things. He is a fundamentalist Christian creationist and his politics are somewhere to the right of Dick Cheney.

A few examples: He shoots any non-farm animal that comes on his property (including dogs, rare martens, and birds of prey), and does it with an enthusiasm that is disturbing for a so-called "poster boy for humane agriculture." This "ecological farmer" opposes wilderness areas, endangered species protection, and farmland preservation and would like to see all land privatized to be milked for all its worth in the name of "property rights." He compares animal-rights supporters and vegetarians to abortionists. And that's just a few of the chapters.

While I agree with a number of his points -- for example, that small-scale farmers should be exempt from regulations designed for corporate agribusinesses like Cargill or Tyson -- his simplistic libertarianism is more appropriate for a college sophomore.

Yes, he pioneered pastured poultry and popularized grass-fed farming in general. The number of different profitable enterprises on his farm is remarkable. And anybody who can make a living farming these days should be congratulated. But this book shows him as a generic, naive libertarian wanna-be who has a persecution complex and a far higher opinion of himself than is deserved.

I highly recommend his other, more practical, books -- "Salad Bar Beef" etc -- instead of this angry right-wing rant. Let's hope a more moderate farmer steps up as a spokesman for this critical paradigm shift in agriculture.

5 out of 5 stars

Worth every penny September 13, 2007
60 out of 68 found this review helpful

Author Joel Salatin is a "farmer." The word tends to conjure an image of the small farmer of yesteryear ... struggling, hapless, about to be made obsolete by today's industrialized, corporatized agribusiness.

Forget that image. Salatin's business model is uniquely American: innovative, quality-driven, free-thinking, and customer-oriented. He has created a loyal local market for his high-quality poultry, beef, and pork, and he accepts no government monies or subsidies.

As if that wasn't hard enough, Salatin has had to constantly swim against an overwhelming tide of flawed regulations that discriminate in favor of mega-operations. "Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal" tells all about that struggle, and so much more.

Salatin asks (and answers) the questions, why are small farmers and local food artisans leaving their heritage behind to work in town? Why do we, as a society, have a larger segment of our population in prison (2.5 %) than working on farms (1.5%)? Why is food quality at a low? And why are regulatory barriers keeping small producers out of the business of food production?

And how did we - the constituency, the consumers, the all-powerful "demand" part of the supply-and-demand equation -- ever buy in to the notion that the institutionalization of our food supply is inexorable and must be suffered with stoic cynicism and resignation? And what is there to do about it?

The answers to these questions matter, because the ultimate costs of these trends are huge, in terms of food quality, in terms of resource damage, and at many other levels. But the worst damage of all is the loss of whole communities and ways of life ... ways that have worked for centuries.

Entrepreneurship - and the freedom to be entrepreneurial - is a huge part of what made this country great, and in the food business, it's in grave danger. A quiet robbery has been happening right under our noses, and the villains and the victims are NOT who we think they are.

I have met Salatin and visited his farm, and he is the genuine item. His book is a must-read for everyone who cherishes freedom.

5 out of 5 stars

Wow! September 12, 2007
33 out of 39 found this review helpful

I blew through this book over the weekend and I've found a soul-mate in Joel Salatin. Salatin in an evangelist for the local food movement and we couldn't have a more honest or articulate one.
Joel does a heartfelt and beautiful job of explaining how the best intentioned goverment programs to support farming are actually destroying it, and the health and freedom of Americans along with it. It's a manifesto for local food systems. If you are interested in local food and supporting sustainable agriculture, this book should be on your shelf and gifted to those in government and academia who could make a difference but haven't.

5 out of 5 stars

A frightening but honest view of our government January 21, 2008
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

Joel Salatin provides an honest, albiet frightening, view of what it is like trying to run a small business in America in 2007. As the owner of a small business for 27 years, as well as a sustainable ag farmer for the past 3 years, I can attest to everything Joel discusses in his book. Other reviews criticize his political leanings, his simplistic libertarianism, his religious beliefs, and his so called "rants", but none of these critics challenges the truth of what he reveals. Those in the front always take the first arrows. This book should scare the hell out of anyone who believes that government is the answer to all of our ills. For those of us who want clean food, those of us who want to produce a wholesome product for us, our families, and our neighbors, and most of all, those of us who just want a choice in our lives, this book is a testament to the need for a revolution against the food industry as well as our big bully government. I borrowed this book from my son, but am so appreciative of the information within, that I will send Joel a check today for the cost of the book.

5 out of 5 stars

Artisinal Ag Insight November 19, 2007
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

Finding a more ecological way to farm...smaller and local....closer to the rhythms of nature...free of the rules and regulations concocted for big agriculture, is not only a dream, but a worthy and noble dream. We live within an industrialized food system, where the "masses" are fed not only bland and somtimes unhealthy food, but are also fed...for corporate advantage and profit...an awful lot of propaganda and half-truth, about one of the most universal human activites...eating.

I appreciate that Salatin puts his local agricultural vision of his specific operations in the contex of entrepreeurship. It's exactly the medicine that's needed, if the movement is to succeed. This alone, makes the book worth reading, and for me, supersedes some areas of strong disagreement.

The vision for a new appreciation of the traditional wisdom of agriculture...as in many other areas of accumulated human wisdom, has been largely discarded by the modern world...and the unsustainable modern food juggernaut, in particular. Salatin posits that a wall now divides Americans from a healthier, more sustainable, and more enjoyable food culture. This is his message, and it is a necessary and good one.

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