In this week's reading, Pollan chronicles his experiences at the Polyface farm. I believe that I connect well with this reading for a few reasons: the first being that my great grandfather is both a farmer and logger who believes in organic and chemical-free farming. He slaughters all his animals humanely and by himself, selling the products to our family and his friends in Northport. His teachings have given most of Northport a good reason to abstain from using chemicals and doing everything the old-fashioned way. Joel of Polyface farm and his family take this one step further, turning their beliefs into a political act, pushing their beliefs past just their small communities.
In the second chapter, Joel and his brother Art speak about how they sell their meats: the biggest shock to me was that most of their meat/crops were sold through CSAs, or rather community supported agricultures, where groups of people from the city would place orders for farmers’ goods and they would either be shipped over short distances or picked up by the customer. I remember my great grandfather did this but, it was only for a few people and not nearly the large portion of income that it is for Joel and his family. If I were a farmer, I’d model my farm after Joel’s ideals.
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