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Joel Salatin’s newest book, Folks, This Ain’t Normal, explores ways Americans can improve their relationship with their food and their neighbors. (Photo by Ashley Twiggs)
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Growing together
One thing I’m feeling this spring is that, five years after we moved to Nelson County, our community is really beginning to coalesce. By that I mean both human and natural connections. And what’s delicious is that the two often intertwine and overlap, like vines on a trellis.
Example: A new friend offers to scoop horse manure into our pickup truck using a front-loader. We’ve been using lots of manure on our garden and are happy to cut down on the shoveling. We meet at the stables; I bring my daughter and he brings his grandson. After both our trucks are full (he gardens too), we take the kids into the barn to feed carrots to the horses. The stable manager shows up and we chat. We’ve met before; she’s the sister of another friend we know through our CSA. Because the CSA isn’t operating this year, we’ve been borrowing some space in their greenhouse to start our seedlings—which, of course, we’ll soon plant in all this lovely manure that’s in the truck.
Every year, we get to know more people and we get to know more plants—invasives and natives, those that bloom and those that shelter cardinals’ nests. I forever associate plants with the people who teach me their names; many of those lessons happen offhand, during what could be mistaken for small talk. And I’m finding a kind of slow satisfaction, digging into the soil and rooting into the village, that I’ve never known before.—Erika Howsare
BULLETIN BOARD
Bus stop: Full bus service on Sundays and holidays! That was the rallying cry for a band of protestors who gathered outside City Hall on May 12, according to NBC29. Demonstrators are unhappy with curtailed CAT schedules that keep the carless from easily reaching hospitals, jobs and fun, and say that Western Bypass money should go to public transit instead.
Go, bikes: Earth Day was supposed to include a Children’s Bicycle Rodeo, but rain put the brakes on. Luckily, biker kids get a second chance from 1 to 3pm Sunday, May 27 on the Lexis Nexis upper parking deck. Riders ages 6 to 12 can show up to learn about bike safety, jockey for prizes, and slurp smoothies blended by bike power. Call Shell at 882-1516 for more info.
Hikers help: The Rivanna Trails Foundation is participating in National Trails Day Saturday, June 2, with a work party at Ragged Mountain National Area. The project of the day is to relocate trail sections around Ragged Mountain Reservoir that will be impacted by the planned new dam. Help out between 9am and noon; see rivannatrails.org.
Water works: The Rockfish River is the subject of a new watershed improvement plan, presented at a public meeting on May 16. The problems: bacteria from unsewered houses and failing septic systems, livestock trampling stream banks, erosion, and low levels of aquatic life. The solutions: keep the cows out of the creeks, plant trees, and fix the plumbing, among other measures. Read more about the plan at www.forwatershed.org.
Fracking in our future?
The U.S. Forest Service is reviewing possible changes to a draft management plan for the vast George Washington National Forest, and while the NFS received overwhelming public support for the original plan’s restrictions on natural gas drilling, an industry-backed push for more relaxed rules could mean major fracking operations are in the forest’s future.
Large stretches of Virginia’s Marcellus shale formation, a vast, gas-rich rock layer, are found under the George Washington National Forest, and the gas industry sees potential.
Others want to put the brakes on gas exploration, largely due to concerns over the extraction method, called hydraulic fracturing or fracking. It involves shooting pressurized water laced with chemicals deep into wells to crack open the rock and release gas, which travels back to the surface along with millions of gallons of wastewater. Many worry that possible negative effects remain largely unstudied and poorly understood. One major concern is water contamination, as critics say the chemicals used in fracking could seep into groundwater supplies or spill at the surface level.
A key part of the USFS’ draft plan for the George Washington was a ban on horizontal drilling, the widely used gas drilling process that involves digging laterally through the shale. The method allows for better access to cracks in the rock and the gas inside them.
But fracking opponents worry it could also compound the problems they fear: bigger operations and more fracking-induced cracking could mean more exposure of rock and groundwater to drilling chemicals. Vertical drilling operations often use fracking, too, but their environmental impact is thought to be smaller.
The USFS received more than 54,000 comments on its draft plan. The vast majority were about fracking, and most expressed support for a ban on horizontal drilling, said Ken Landgraf of the USFS’ Roanoke office.
“While the majority of comments were supportive of what we did, we also heard from a number of different industries, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and others on what the science actually looks like,” Landgraf said. “We felt we needed to look at that a little more closely.”
The USFS is taking the minority voice seriously enough that it’s considering reworking the management plan, which will likely be finalized this summer, to allow horizontal drilling after all.
That concerns Sarah Francisco, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which has closely followed the local fracking debate. The SELC and other organizations want to see more limits to gas drilling on national forest lands, she said, not fewer. The federal government doesn’t own all the land within the George Washington’s boundary, and only owns mineral rights on 84 percent of what it does hold. “That makes it all that much more important to protect the large, intact portions that we have, and those resources we can’t be sure we can protect on any other lands in the state,” Francisco said.
Landgraf said he’s aware that some people might see a move to work expanded drilling allowances into the final plan as caving to industry. But he said the USFS didn’t hear from gas companies the first time around, “and they have some legitimate information that can help us make a better decision.” People’s opinions matter, he said, “but we have to pay attention to the scientific details of what might work and might not work.”—Graelyn Brashear
Behold the local solution
I’m just finishing Joel Salatin’s most recent book, Folks, This Ain’t Normal, and the time is right for me to stand up and testify. The Salatin family at Polyface Farm has developed a single solution for most of our pressing societal and environmental ills. The solution is farming, and the work and the decisions that go into it, and the food and the fertility that result from it. Not only has their farm family dutifully produced the food for our tables, season after season and year after year, but the Salatins have also opened their farm and their business to any and all interested parties, offering their method of farming as a replicable, reliable, profitable, and positive way to change the face of food in our country. Amen.
The Polyface production method includes beef cattle, pork pigs, meat rabbits, and meat and egg chickens. By raising these animals in proximity and in succession, the Salatins are orchestrating the natural cycle of grassland grazing and renewal that is actually sequestering carbon and adding topsoil to their farm. Sequestering carbon! Adding topsoil! I’m no scientist, and I can’t personally address the topsoil and carbon issues, but I do believe that our food choices directly support the actions of the folks who produce it. Conveniently, purchasing high quality, fresh, local food translates to excellent flavor, de facto seasonal eating, and a vibrant personal and communal food culture. Hallelujah!
The Polyface pastured poultry method —fresh grass daily, highest quality grain ration, and on-farm processing—is widespread in central Virginia, due in part to Salatin’s books on the topic and the 20 or so apprentices that learn it each year. In comparison to the shameful conditions under which commercial eggs and meat birds are grown (please don’t make me give you specifics!), Polyface Farm’s production methods are a locally-grown solution to the problems of industrial food production.
In this book, Joel explores topics such as water conservation, cooking, occupation for children, entertainment, and community life as experienced en masse in America. In his trademark vernacular (the book jacket calls him “the High Priest of the Pasture”) he offers stories and observations based on his life and experiences at his farm, and offers the reader simple but profound actions that might restore normalcy to our relationship with food and with each other. To sum up: Grow some food in your yard or windowsill. Cook at home. Eat with your family and friends. Agitate for positive change throughout society. Invest in local solutions.