Food Chain Radio Show #1052

Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist

Joel Salatin, The Lunatic Farmer of Polyface Farm

This Poll is closed!!

Is cultural selection fair?

No

Yes

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25%

75%

Guest: Joel Salatin, Farmer & Author of The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer

I read an interesting story in ACRES USA from Joel Salatin about two sick cows in a pasture.

Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – Is cultural selection fair? With guest Joel Salatin, Farmer & Author of The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer

Farmer Joel had isolated the sick cows in the pasture because he did not want them contaminating the herd with their sickness.

Apparently some city folks driving down the country road saw the sick cows and complained loudly to anyone who would listen that the sick cows were not being treated fairly.

I thought this conflict between farmer and city folk to be a sign of the times:

To build a viable commercial herd, farmers believe one must select the best and cull the rest. But to many city folk, selecting the best and culling the rest is to be overly judgmental and downright unfair.

To the farmer, treating sick cows has two costs: the money it costs to pay for the vet and the future cost of sending weak genetics into the herd. Both costs diminish the farmer’s ability to survive in business.

To city folk, sick cows in the pasture are no different than sick family pets deserving of whatever care is required. To deprive them of that care is to be cruel and uncaring.

This conflict between two ways of seeing the business of life leads us to ask… 

Leave a comment:  Is cultural selection fair?

Tune in here, for the syndicated Food Chain Radio Show #1052 April 16, 2016 Saturday 9AM Pacific