Freedom starts in the Heart

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posted on

July 25, 2024

Every country has a rich history and story behind it.

As we celebrated America’s birthday this month, I have been reminded of the tenacity of our people to stand up for freedom, to brave new lands, to welcome new people, and to try new things.

America the beautiful, truly is a land worth celebrating and fighting for to maintain the freedoms we have been given. As you gather with friends and family this summer, I hope you can remember that freedom starts in the hearts of the people and is something to think about every day.

The Declaration of Independence tells us of our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Let's look at each of these “unalienable rights” and see how it applies to our lives today in our pursuit of healthy, nutrient dense food that heals the land.

1.) Life!

Our bodies need food to survive. The very matter of what food is made of brings life to our bones and gives energy to our bodies so that we can operate. Unfortunately, most of the food found on grocery store shelves isn’t truly food at all and is sadly disconnected from the living cycle of real food. The whole process of growing and raising food is steeped in life. The sun gives life to the plants which give life to the animals. The farmer gives his life and energy to raise those animals and then eats the meat they provide as the food that he eats to live. It is a beautiful cycle, simple yet complex. No genetically modified or artificial replica will ever replace the life that is found in good food. Is the food that you are eating giving you life and freedom?

2.) Liberty!

As simple as it seems to pursue eating real and living foods that provide for our bodies (giving us the nutrients we need far above any diet or pill can provide), we somehow make the process more complicated than it needs to be. Our society has slowly disconnected from our food system and now we don’t even know what patch of earth our food was grown on or who did the work of raising it. We often neglect the responsibility to care for our bodies and care about what we put into them. You have the freedom to ask questions and learn about the food that you use to nurture your body and your family's bodies. This is not something that should be taken lightly! As your farmers, we seek to be vulnerable and open with you about our practices in raising food. Come take a tour of the farm and see it for yourself or check out our other blog to read more about how we operate. Chicken breast does not automatically become a yummy dinner. Dig a little deeper and learn about your food, how it was raised and processed, what the chickens ate, and how they were handled. What steps could you take to take hold of your right to liberty in the food you eat? What could you learn about the source of the food you eat? And how can you participate in protecting that freedom?

3.) The Pursuit of Happiness!

When we talk about happiness, I don’t necessarily mean that things must be perfect and we must be at maximum comfort. Instead, the definition of happiness is closely linked to contentment and satisfaction. Are you fulfilling your purpose? Are you doing what you were made to do? I think when you are in that place, happiness is right there with you.

To quote Joel from his book, “The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs”

“How do we honor the pigness of pigs? How do we create a farm and food system that respects the pig’s glory? What are the distinctives, the special attributes of the pig? What is the essence of the pig?”

At Polyface, we seek to celebrate the essence of things - whether that be our pigs or our employees. We are all unique and have different giftings and abilities. Happiness and contentment are going to look different for every single person in this world. What is it that makes you come alive? Pursue that! If you were a pig, it might mean munching acorns; if you were a chicken the pursuit of happiness might mean the pursuit of a grasshopper. In my case, moving cows is one of my daily tasks that brings me the most joy but I have friends at the farm who find happiness in different jobs. What does the pursuit of happiness look like for you?

I hope that this year, as we celebrate our country, you can pause and honor the folks who have worked hard to make this country as free as it is and also look at your own life and the choices you make on a daily basis as you work, eat, raise a family and live life. How are you working to maintain your unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

Polyface is here to provide life giving foods, support your liberty as you make the healthiest choices for your family and encourage you on to the pursuit of happiness! We want you to thrive!

All Related

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year--that's a lot of stuff going on kind of lumped together. Which brings me to my thought this month: it's all related. Perhaps the signature difference between Polyface and current mainline food thinking is integration versus segregation. I could use numerous words to describe this basic concept, like parts versus wholes, but I think these two are as good as any. Conventional industrial food systems break things apart. We see it on farms that grow only one or two things, without regard for the greater inter-relatedness of ecology, all the way up to packaged and processed food. Modern processed foods don't use whole ingredients; they use pieces of things. They strip out the germ of the wheat, for example. They refine things to the point that the food bears no resemblance to its natural state. Then they put all these pieces together and call it food. But these pieces came from widely divergent places, and the beautiful unprocessed original no longer exists. When Dad and I were brainstorming what to call this farm venture that would eventually become Polyface, Dad's assumption was that we'd call it Salatin Inc.--you know, like Ford Motor Company or Chrysler (named for Walter P. Chrysler, the founder). I was adamant that it NOT be our family name for two reasons. First, I suggested there may be a day when a Salatin isn't at the helm. Secondly, I wanted the name to recognize integrated thinking. I came up with the name "Interface Inc." to recognize the three great environments: water, land, and forest. For 20 years, during what I call our experimental homesteading days, we'd been planting trees, fencing out riparian zones, fencing out the forest to protect it from cows, and developing a landscape plan with these various zones in mind. The State Corporation Commission rejected the name because, unbeknownst to us, Virginia already had an "Interface Inc." It was a labor arbitration company to work out disagreements between labor and management. I was milking the cow when Dad told me the bad news, and I spontaneously blurted: "If we can't be Interface, let's be Polyface--the farm of many faces." Dad laughed, but we both liked the idea, and it stuck and was approved. The point here is that from the outset, all our thinking was about how to leverage the various assets of the diversified ecosystem and then harness the distinctives of the various animals. As a result, we looked at symbiotic natural patterns and have done our best to duplicate them. The Eggmobile follows the cows so the chickens can scratch through cow pies. We use pigs to aerate compost. Our small flock of sheep is like a glorified weed eater, cleaning up fence lines and around farm buildings to reduce mowing. The animals move through the pastures, paddock to paddock; they don't stay in the same place. Illustrative of "conventional-think", Virginia Tech veterinary professors who judged my son Daniel's 4-H talk titled "Symbiosis and Synergy in the Racken (Rabbit-Chicken) House" at the state contest nearly 30 years ago couldn't restrain their skepticism. "Aren't you concerned about diseases with two species that close to each other?" I was never so proud. He was about 15 and, without batting an eye, looked those professors in the eye and replied: "We've learned that most pathogens don't cross-speciate." Folks, I had not prepped him for that question. When he responded like that, those three professors slapped their legs and laughed at the audacious notion. They had no further comments and immediately tried to recruit him to enroll at Virginia Tech and major in Veterinary Science. Instead, he stayed with me on the farm and scaled up these simple integrated relationships to the thousands of animals we have now--with virtually no vet bills. Meanwhile, conventional experts wring their hands over bird flu, screw worm, African swine fever, blackleg, and a host of maladies that attack places where an integrated approach toward biology is severely lacking. Pediatrician Dr. Sharon Goldfield, director of population health for the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, wrote a fascinating op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last week titled "Baby Food and Youth Obesity." She slammed "packaged baby and toddler foods" because they fail even rudimentary nutrition standards. Their surveys indicated that "80 percent of children are eating packaged toddler foods, many of which are ultra-processed, from an early age, with 43 percent of them eating these foods at least five days a week." Kids are eating out of boxes and slurping from concoctions created by a segregated mentality from field to stomach. This segregated thinking even permeates parental decision making, divorcing overall health from food and assuming whatever happens, pharmaceuticals can fix it. At Polyface, everything we do assumes that everything we do affects something else we do. It's that simple. Both land health and people health occur when we realize everything relates to everything. You can't just eat well and not exercise. You can't dismiss the value of sunlight on your skin; especially early morning sunlight. Hydration. Sleep. Stress. Forgiveness. Gratitude. It's all part of us. As we celebrate all these holiday times and imagine the relatedness of Thanksgiving with the Christmas story with the eagerness of a new year, imagine all the things going on in your life and how they work together. Or how if you pull them apart, things fray. Be assured that here at Polyface we're trying to integrate ecology, people, and economy in an overall symbiotic whole to deliver you the best food at a reasonable price. And we thank you for helping us build an integrated whole that respects earthworms all the way to our dinner plate and microbiome. We're not feeding you earthworms, but be assured they play an ongoing role in every bite you enjoy from Polyface. Thank you. Joel