Polyface is NOT an equal opportunity employer, does NOT take government money, is VERY discriminatory and LOVES bright eyed, bushy-tailed self-starters. This position requires working closely with Christian environmentalist libertarian capitalist lunatic farmers. If that sounds like your team, welcome home.

1. Did the Polyface farm use any equipment?
YES. SMALL TRACTORS, FOUR-WHEELERS, A MOBILE SAW-MILL, ETC.

2. The Polyface farm is 400 acres which is far larger than many small family farms. Is it really a model for family farming or a model for organic farming which could be used in larger scale farms?
ALL ACRES ARE NOT CREATED ALIKE. AN ACRE IN FLORIDA IS VERY DIFFERENT THAN ONE IN NEVADA, FOR EXAMPLE. THUS, SIMPLY TALKING ABOUT ABSTRACT ACRAGE IS NOT REALLY THE POINT, I THINK.

3. In many parts of the world where farms are small they do not necessarily end up with farms that have long term stability other than by rotating crops. Is the Polyface farm model for America only or is it a world solution? If a world solution how do we raise the economies of these other countries so they can sustain the model?
SALATIN AND THE POLYFACE FOLKS ARE CONVINCED THIS IS THE RIGHT WAY TO FARM, PERIOD. CHECK OUT THEIR WEBSITE.

4. On a social level will we actually revert to being an agrarian society if many people become farmers? Can we really deconstruct the larger cities to make these farms able to support the population in the cities?
WHO KNOWS? BUT I THINK WE NEED TO RESIST INEVITABLITY ARGUMENTS, I.E. ARGUMENTS THAT INSIST THAT A PARTICULAR WAY OF DOING THINGS IS INEVITABLE (INDUSTRIAL FARMING) OR THAT OUR CURRENT ECONOMIC ARRANGEMENTS ARE HISTORICALLY DETERMINED.

5. You mention changing how we farm as a method to protect against terrorist. If we change how we live to protect against terrorist have the terrorist not already won (I know that this question really deals with a point that I do not think was essential to your article but I did not want to skip it just in case I was wrong)?
IF I BUY A GUN TO PROTECT MYSELF AND MY FAMILY AGAINST INTRUDERS, HAS THE INTRUDER WON? IF I WEAR A HELMET WHEN I RIDE A MOTORCYCLE HAS GRAVITY WON? TAKING PRECAUTIONS IS NOT GIVING UP. IN FACT, THEY PUT ONE IN A BETTER POSITION TO SUCCEED.

6. My final question is “Is it the size of the farm that is the problem or is it how the farm is run? Is man’s greed greater than man’s self preservation?”
THE SIZE OF THE FARM LIMITS, TO SOME EXTENT, HOW IT CAN BE RUN. USE AN ECONOMIC ANALOGY: IS IT THE SIZE OF OUR ECONOMY THAT’S THE PROBLEM OR HOW IT IS RUN? THE FACT IS, THE SIZE LIMITS THE OPTIONS IN HOW IT CAN BE RUN. THEY ARE NOT SEPARATE QUESTIONS.

I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to respond but the week has been very busy. I am probably one or a very few who read this blog (and maybe the only one) who will speak in favor of large corporate farms. As such there are a few comments I would like to add as well as questions to ask (as I need to learn all I can and questions always help with this).

I notice that you talk about the many benefits that the Polyface farm has. I believe you have summed them up as ecological, long term economic and social. I hope I did not miss anything in that summation.

Two of those three points I believe are the same. The long term economic and ecological are tied together but neither is truly dependent on the size of the farm. Instead they are based on the purposes of who runs the farm (and in many cases in America the government assisting how they are run) and how they go about accomplishing that. If the purpose is the short sighted model followed by many Americans of thinking about how they can get the quickest return for themselves without caring about others than yes, I agree we cannot have large corporate farms. In the long run the farms would become unsustainable like any other depletive resource.

Instead I believe that large corporate farms will have the ability to transition themselves from the current method of “strip” farming and move to a system that is more renewable. They will have to unless they want to go out of business when their resource is gone. They cannot move to the next mountain like the strip miners (who will also eventually have to go out of business). The Polyface farm is 400 acres but could easily be 40,000 acres with more chickens and cows (along with rabbits and most importantly the hogs). It is not the size but the how and why.

I will still contend that large farms have the advantage that they are able to put more land under production. They do not have to use as much land for the farm house and other items needed by the family (like a basketball court). The large farm can also build up easier than a family farm can as their storage space will require more space and be larger.

They also get the advantage of the equipment used. The large corporate farm has the resources necessary to buy better equipment and they actually need less equipment than family farms (I will admit that co-ops do level this advantage some). Ten family farms will need 10 tractors while a large corporate farm will need less for the same area.

So now time for my education (or the questions I always must ask).

1. Did the Polyface farm use any equipment?
2. The Polyface farm is 400 acres which is far larger than many small family farms. Is it really a model for family farming or a model for organic farming which could be used in larger scale farms?
3. In many parts of the world where farms are small they do not necessarily end up with farms that have long term stability other than by rotating crops. Is the Polyface farm model for America only or is it a world solution? If a world solution how do we raise the economies of these other countries so they can sustain the model?
4. On a social level will we actually revert to being an agrarian society if many people become farmers? Can we really deconstruct the larger cities to make these farms able to support the population in the cities?
5. You mention changing how we farm as a method to protect against terrorist. If we change how we live to protect against terrorist have the terrorist not already won (I know that this question really deals with a point that I do not think was essential to your article but I did not want to skip it just in case I was wrong)?
6. My final question is “Is it the size of the farm that is the problem or is it how the farm is run? Is man’s greed greater than man’s self preservation?”

Organic tip for the day “Plant peanuts to add nitrogen to the soil”

Mr. Sabin, you do indeed have a gift with words. It’s always a pleasure to read your comments.

The Federal Government and it’s runt subsidiary the States , at this late stage knows only centralization. It’s not that centralization is a bugaboo to be avoided entirely, it’s that centralization requires moderation like anything else . In an unchecked form, we get the current degenerative economic, health, environmental and war farrago…a kind of smorgasbord of the dysfunctions of industrial hyper-centralization.

The “Health Care Reform” movement is a case in point. We have yet to hear any beyond the fringe bring the issue of healthy food and healthy food production into the health care reform crusade….beyond the merest of sidelong glances. Descriptions of the “chicken hands” (a kind of red and stinging rash) developed by institutional kitchen workers who prepare industrially produced poultry is enough for me to stop eating them. We centralize the discussion of health into simply a debate around the industry of health care. Agricultural Policy, Energy Policy and Health Policy remain largely balkanized.

Fortunately, like with most things, the public is way ahead of Washington on this issue but sadly, Washington continues to fight a kind of Fort Apache Stand Against Reality. Bismarck asserted “God has a special providence for fools, drunks and the United States of America”. Lets hope he’s right. At some point, we’ll come to the realization that modernity is not simply a kind of total war victory over the past and that some parts of our past could inform a better modernity while the future is not pre-ordained to be a darkly menacing Science Fiction nihilism. Not long ago, we were that strange and wonderful thing called Americans and it was a badge of pride built upon the humility that finds fortune amidst common sacrifice and a trust in the inimitable dignity of the individual who can respect his fellow because he respects himself. I think Salatin is the real deal in this regard, hippy, Christian or otherwise.