Salad Bar Beef by Joel Salatin

Salad Bar Beef by Joel Salatin

In a day when beef is assailed by many environmental organizations and lauded by fast-food chains, a new paradigm to bring reason to this confusion is in order. With farmers leaving the land in droves and plows poised to reclaim set-aside acres, it is time to offer an alternative that is both land and farmer friendly.

Beyond that, the salad bar beef production model offers hope to rural communities, to struggling row-crop farmers, and to frustrated beef eaters who do not want to encourage desertification, air and water pollution, environmental degradation and inhumane animal treatment. Because this is a program weighted toward creativity, management, entrepreneurism and observation, it breathes fresh air into farm economics.

Joel Salatin is a third-generation family farmer who farms with his wife Teresa, son Daniel, daughter Rachel, and their families in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Via on-farm sales and metropolitan buying clubs, the Salatin Polyface Farm, an organic grass-fed farm, serves over 3,000 households, ten retail shops, and fifty restaurants. Joel Salatin has contributed to a number of publications, including Stockman Grass Farmer, Acres USA, and American Agriculture.