Interview: 'Food, Inc.' Director Robert Kenner

Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin is an organic farmer and an agribusiness critic featured in Food, Inc.

February 23, 2010 from NPR

"How much do we really know about the food we buy at the grocery store? Filmmaker Robert Kenner talks about his documentary, Food, Inc., which is up for an Oscar. The film raises questions about the safety of our food.

Kenner likens the whole supermarket to fast food — efficient and inexpensive. That model is supported by what he calls "very high, unseen costs," that we're just beginning to understand.

However, Kenner sees hope in organic farmers like Joel Salatin, and even Wal-Mart, which listened to consumers when it stopped using the growth hormone rBST for dairy cattle. "And we as consumers," he tells host Neal Conan, "have to know we can have a voice in changing the system."

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Polyfacefarms.com, Mr. Joel Salatin

Polyface Pastured Broilers are moved everyday to fresh pasture. They receive plenty of fresh air and sunshine.

Joel Salatin

Click here to hear his speech

Joel Salatin, America's Most Influential Farmer, Talks Big Organic and the Future of Food

Joel Salatin is a self-described environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer, or as the New York Times calls him, "the high priest of the pasture." You may remember him from The Omnivore's Dilemma, in which he was profiled at length by Michael Pollan. Salatin's innovative farming system—where the animals live according to their "ness," the earth is used for symbiosis, and happiness and health is key—has gained attention from around the country, and he travels in the winter giving lectures and demonstrations. He is the author of a number of books including Holy Cows and Hog Heaven, Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal, You Can Farm, Pastured Poultry Profit$, and Family Friendly Farming. I talked to Joel Salatin about how he got started farming, his appearance in the new film Food, Inc., the government's role in farm politics, and his ideas on the future of food. Suffice it to say, it's not as simple as conventional vs. organic.

Makenna Goodman: How did you go from being a farmer in Swoope, Virginia, to a public figure in the food movement? You have written many books on this topic, so feel free to give the short version!

READ the interview here from Treehugger