The Veg Blog

“What is the essence of pig?” Virginia farmer Joel Salatin asked an audience of about 200 University students and Charlottesville residents last Thursday.

Dubbed “high priest of the pasture” by The New York Times, Salatin said life for his pigs is a “Hog Heaven.” His 550-acre farm, Polyface, Inc., is like an animal sanctuary, he said…

Sounds pretty nice, right?

Until you read the second paragraph of “Holy cow!” from The Cavalier Daily (VA) in full:

Dubbed “high priest of the pasture” by The New York Times, Salatin said life for his pigs is a “Hog Heaven.” His 550-acre farm, Polyface, Inc., is like an animal sanctuary, he said, created to produce high-quality pork, beef and poultry that his consumers can trust.

Wash my mouth out with vegan soap, but: what the fuck?

It gets worse:

As he describes in his latest book, “Holy Cows and Hog Heaven,” Salatin believes that the journey “from farm to fork” is a sacred one. Beginning the lecture with a quote from the Book of Genesis, he said the road to success in the agricultural world is rooted in Christianity. The reflection of Christian values onto the land and the happiness of the animals is one of the main focuses of Polyface, Inc., Salatin said.

A self-described “Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-lunatic-beyond-organic farmer,” Salatin promotes six principles he believes every farmer should follow: order, forgiveness, peace, relationships, honesty, humility and healing. These principles develop a peaceful, beautiful environment and a food system consumers can appreciate.

So, apparently the ideas of “peace” and “healing” involve slaughtering animals based on something in scripture and then selling it as happy meat.

“I’m in the healing industry,” Salatin said. In his opinion, healing is one of the most important and enjoyable aspects of farming, meant to nurture the land and livestock with the utmost care and respect. His ultimate goal is not to increase productivity and efficiency, but to “make an animal sanctuary.”

Dude, if you want to build an animal sanctuary, build a place where animals, you know, have sanctuary.

If he was just promoting happy meat, that probably wouldn’t even be worth mentioning here. But Salatin’s assertion that what he provides for animals is “sanctuary” is offensive to the truly compassionate people that run actual animal sanctuaries, the people that do what they do for the animals and not for the financial benefit that comes from their death.

I think I’ll close with this quote from Salatin, a question he should ask himself a little more carefully:

“There is a respectful, righteous way and an evil way to produce — which one are we feeding?” Salatin asked.

Sunday marked the sixth annual Poplar Spring Run for the Animals. I’ve run this race each year, the first one just a couple of months after I’d started volunteering at the farm. I look forward to the race, hills and all, every year.

This year, my cheering squad was in Charlottesville for my brother-in-law’s graduation from UVa (congrats, John!), but I had the distant cheers of many generous sponsors in my head. We managed to raise $500 for the farm, so big thanks to Bahar, Barabara, Brandi, Chris, Deb, Katherine, Leeann, Mary, Michelle, Natala, Sunil, and Mom and Dad for the support!

I finished in just under 25 minutes, averaging about 8 minutes a mile (official time was a few seconds more), which for me was a big win. I’m not a hardcore runner and the course itself is really hilly, so I’ll take that time any day of the week. It was more than a minute faster than my previous best for this race, which was good enough to place to me 55th out of 320.

It was another great event for the farm — over 300 runners (plus quite a few walkers), great vegan eats after the race, and it was by far the greenest race I’ve ever run.

Race results are here and a few photos have been posted.

In six days, I’ll be running the sixth annual Poplar Spring Run for the Animals 5k and this year I’m raising money for the sanctuary. I can guarantee you that your money will be used well and wisely, directly affecting the lives of the hundreds of residents of the farm. So, if you have a few dollars to spare for a good cause:

And if you need a little more convincing, hit play on this slideshow of photos I’ve taken at Poplar Spring and Poplar Spring events over the last 5+ years:

Juniper the goat. Read her story (PDF).

In about a month, for the sixth straight year I’ll be running the Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary Run for the Animals. I started volunteering at Poplar Spring over five years ago and it’s always been a great source of inspiraton for me. When I started there, I was still lacto-ovo vegetarian. It didn’t take long (but longer than it should have) for me to go vegan thanks to being able to work directly with the animals and become a part of the community that works and volunteers at the farm. Others that I’ve brought to the farm have done everything from eating significantly less meat to giving up meat altogether after only one visit. It really is quite a place. Terry and Dave don’t waver in their commitment to the animals and have done an amazing job over the past 10+ years.

I’ve set a bit of a high goal for myself and I have a long, long way to go, so please, won’t you…

Also, my pal Josh is doing something similar. Except he’ll be going 596.9 miles further than me and will do so on a bicycle. It’d be cool if you helped him out in his effort to raise money for Farm Sanctuary by donating here and becoming a Facebook fan of the event. Do your thing, Josh!

This Saturday is the annual Poplar Spring Thanksgiving with the Turkeys.  It’s a gigantic vegan potluck with hundreds of attendees.  And, of course, the turkeys get their fair shake at this celebration, eating first on tables covered with grapes and other snacks.  They’re even nice about it and let the chickens join in on the fun.

If you’re in the DC/MD area, try to make it.  It’s a mere $10 suggested donation (kids under 16 are free).  And, of course, bring a vegan dish to share!

Poplar Spring Thanksgiving with the Turkeys
November 22, 2008, noon-4pm
Directions

NBC4 in Washington, DC is featuring a really nice video featuring Poplar Spring sanctuary.  It’s primarily a review of Karen Dawn’s new book Thanking the Monkey (Really?  That’s the title?  And with a peeled banana on the front cover?), but it’s shot at Poplar Spring and features some great footage of the animals.  I thought the tone of this piece was particularly noteworthy, especially in contrast to the local FOX affiliates’s patronizing animal feature last month.  The NBC 4 piece doesn’t attempt any goofy wordplay, respectfully presents the issues, and even makes mention that “cage-free doesn’t mean cruelty-free.”

Of course, the sole comment on the story is completely trollish:

(August 12, 2008 11:32 PM)

What a waste. Those animals could feed homeless people and other hungry humans. These animal "rights" activists should be ashamed of themselves. There’s a place in this world for ALL of God’s creatures — right next to the beans and mashed potatoes.

I submitted a reply, which hasn’t been approved yet:

You know what else could be used to feed homeless people and other hungry humans?  Money spent on pointless wars.

Compassion for animals and compassion for humans aren’t mutually exclusive.

I know, I know, don’t feed the trolls.  And the “pointless war” thing is kind of played out, but at its most basic level, it’s still true, no?

In addition, the station’s blog entry received its own trollish comment:

Alexandria, VA

I can’t believe that in this day and age some people are still working for the “rights” of animals. My goodness — have they run out of CONSTRUCTIVE things to do? Next thing you know they’ll want legal rights for potted plants. This is what happens when overprivileged brats lose focus in life and forgot what’s truly important: watching out for the welfare of PEOPLE.

I replied to this one as well:

It’s always funny to me how people like Adam seem to assume that a person’s belief in animal rights somehow means they’re anti-human. Animal rights and human rights are inextricably connected, as they recognize (rather than ignore or capitalize on) the suffering of “the other.”

I’ve found that those that accuse others of “wasting” time on “unconstructive” things like animal rights really aren’t doing much of anything to advance any cause other than their desire to hear themselves talk.

Anyway, I’m happy to see Poplar Spring get such good coverage on local news.  And it sounds like Karen Dawn’s book has that Skinny Bitch mainstream appeal that will get new people thinking and talking about animal issues.

(For those in the DC area, two dates to mark on your calendars: First, on Monday August 18 from 5-8:30pm, Karen Dawn will be doing a signing for her book at the sanctuary. Then, on Sunday August 31, Great Sage restaurant will be donating 10% of the day’s profits to the sanctuary.  Go get some tasty eats and support the farm.)

Thanks to Deb for mentioning this great video shot at Poplar Spring last year. It definitely catches the essence of what I love about the farm:

Since I became vegetarian nearly three-and-a-half years ago, I’ve done as much as I can to learn about my diet and its affect on animals, the environment, and my health. I feel like I’ve gotten to a pretty good point where I’m “nearly vegan” and though that’s good, I wanted to contribute even more directly to animal welfare in a way that wasn’t as self-focused. A few months ago, I started to volunteer at Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary. I’m still just a beginner when it comes to farm work, but I’ve learned so much from Terry, Dave, and all the great volunteers and employees at Poplar Spring. I’ve learned the best way to carry a lamb, how best to pick up a piglet, what can happen if horses and mules eat too much grass during the springtime, and why young pigs need suntan lotion. I’ve also seen first hand how farm animals have very individual personalities, just like dogs and cats, which has deepened my resolve for being vegetarian.

It’s certainly not the most glamorous work in the world, but I look forward to it each and every time I go. It’s very rewarding to know I’m directly affecting animals that have been victims of the pain, torture, and neglect associated with food production, ritual sacrifice, and even animal hoarding. Something I’ve found is that not many people realize that sanctuaries for farm animals even exist. Heck, I didn’t know until a couple of years ago. And with Poplar Spring, I was living within 40 minutes of it for three-and-a-half years before I stumbled upon it by accident through the VegDC site.

I did a little searching and couldn’t come across a single good resource for finding out about farm sanctuaries, so I’m going to begin work on a directory and can use your help. Please comment here or contact me if you know of any farm sanctuaries in your area or would like to help on the technical side of building the directory. I think that being able to spend time with farm animals really helps put a face on food and is something that every ethical vegetarian should attempt to do at some point in their journey.

(If you’d like to see some pictures I’ve taken at Poplar Spring, see the two photo galleries on my personal site. And, of course, don’t forget the feature article here about the Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY.)