Lunatic Farmer

2007

16min

Farmer Joel Salatin is considered by many as the "high priest of the pasture." Restaurant reviewers say Chef Cathal Armstrong "steeps into another reality using local ingredients...to produce dishes that are subtly, intriguingly unique." As the two connect on film, along with Armstrong's kids, Eve 7 and Eammon 4, on the rolling pastures of Joel Salatin's idyllic Polyface Farm, we get a lesson in where our food comes from and how to care for the land. From seeing how "pig power" builds the compost and happy chickens are left to express their "chickeness", wandering freely in the pasture, we experience the circle of life on the farm. Farmer Salatin shows how his animals "do the real work"-fertilizing, aerating, composting-making clean food for the community without fertilizer, antibiotics and other harmful chemicals.