Joel Salatin on restoring American agriculture:

"We need a food emancipation proclamation so that farmers can sell to their neighbors without asking the government's permission."

"That’s the answer to urban food deserts."
"It’s the answer to everything."
"It doesn’t take a dime… pic.twitter.com/LWXxWGuQhb

— Jonny Paradise 🌱 (@plantparadise7) August 14, 2025

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"We need a food emancipation proclamation so that farmers can sell to their neighbors without asking the government's permission."

"That's the answer to urban food deserts."
"It's the answer to everything."
"It doesn't take a dime of taxpayer money."

"It doesn't take a government agencyonly the unleashing of liberty and freedom in the food system."

"You shouldn't have to ask the government's permission to sell a bowl of tomato soup to your neighbor. That should not require a government position."

"What we need is to unleash the American entrepreneurial spirit and let us interact in food transactions without asking the nanny state for permission."

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So much truth in this statement. Big Ag is absolutely necessary for a functioning society but the standards for food production they have shouldn't be thrust upon the little guys.....

I guarantee you nobody is asking the government for permission to sell a bowl of tomato soup to their neighbor.

Yet.

The current system is deeply flawed. But going from one extreme to the other may not be the correct answer. The correct answer may be to reform the agencies that regulate food production and sales.

The devil is in the details. Is he suggesting that restaurants should be completely unregulated? That dairies should be? What are sales "to your neighbor"?

His pitch sounds good, but I suspect it would last all of ten seconds if fully adopted as widely as he proclaims. The first time someone's "neighbor" dies from the spoiled food that was sold to them, people would scream for the regulations to be reinstated.

This happens in rural areas all the time already. In the suburbs as well (for years I had a gal that did catering for my business without any type of govt interaction).

I'm confused. How would this affect food deserts? They exist because hood rats rob the stores blind. I can't see farmers or ranchers wanting any involvement in these areas.

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people would scream for the regulations to be reinstated.

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not the dead ones.....

I used to sell ungulates to locals for feasts, religious occasions, etc. and allowed some to slaughter on my property. I was pretty strict about my rules regarding cleanup. The Feds (USDA) allow for this as long as the end user forks over the cash ahead of said slaughter and becomes the owner of the animal.
Enter Texas Dept. of State Health Services. The same state that is the largest producer of sheep and goats in our nation. Nope, not unless you build a sanitary building with water and then have an inspector out to bless it.
It is ok for me to slaughter my own for personal use as well as clean deer, wild hogs, etc. But I can't sell a live animal to someone else and let them do it without jumping through their hoops.

Krombopulos Michael said:

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Joel Salatin on restoring American agriculture:

"We need a food emancipation proclamation so that farmers can sell to their neighbors without asking the government's permission."

"That’s the answer to urban food deserts."
"It’s the answer to everything."
"It doesn’t take a dime… pic.twitter.com/LWXxWGuQhb

— Jonny Paradise 🌱 (@plantparadise7) August 14, 2025

Quote:

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"We need a food emancipation proclamation so that farmers can sell to their neighbors without asking the government's permission."

"That's the answer to urban food deserts."
"It's the answer to everything."
"It doesn't take a dime of taxpayer money."

"It doesn't take a government agencyonly the unleashing of liberty and freedom in the food system."

"You shouldn't have to ask the government's permission to sell a bowl of tomato soup to your neighbor. That should not require a government position."

"What we need is to unleash the American entrepreneurial spirit and let us interact in food transactions without asking the nanny state for permission."

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So much truth in this statement. Big Ag is absolutely necessary for a functioning society but the standards for food production they have shouldn't be thrust upon the little guys.....

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If we go by what Joel Salatin thinks we should be farming, we'd see mass starvation.

Give me Norman Borlaug over pseudo hippie nonsense.

Waffledynamics said:

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I guarantee you nobody is asking the government for permission to sell a bowl of tomato soup to their neighbor.

Yet.

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Have you read about the FDA crackdown on raw milk and cheese made with raw milk sold by Amish people to other Amish people?

I've visited his farm and I was impressed by how much production he squeezed out of 500 acres.

I don't believe his methods could replace industrial farming but I do believe that his proposed deregulation would help local farmers and ranchers by allowing them to process and sell their products locally at retail prices instead of regulations driving them to selling to industrial processors at wholesale prices.

The answer for most problems - get the government out of the way.

I love Norman Borlaug as well, and he brought a lot of amazing things in the world.

However, what he allowed for was the building of a system through his improved plant species and genetically modified species


I think we will rue the day that we allowed his creations to become owned by the government industrial complex.

Once again, good intentions…..

I think you're right. I think that's what Joel is saying. Get the government out of our food.

However, it's once again rules for thee but not for me

All those Americans abide by all the rules go to the supermarket and buy government approved foods


How many of these damn taco trucks on the side of the road do you think have all the necessary permits, etc.? Or for that matter restaurants in the barrio?

I can promise you this is the last thing on our producers minds right now. American farmers are in SERIOUS trouble financially and no one seems to care. Inflation has absolutely crushed us and commodity prices continue to tank. From seed, fertilizer, and chemicals, to fuel, tires, batteries, oil, labor, and equipment, the zeros keep stacking up. We are making record yields this season and will likely lose money. This is across multiple operations covering 10s of 1000s acres with multiple different crops and commodities produced. I have had 2 producers go out in my region so far this season and will likely see many more.

The end result of borlaugs contribution seems to be that 20% of the population can't eat wheat. Seemed like a good deal for a long time though.

If the government were not involved, I'd definitely be taking soup into the hood to feed the gangbangers.

/sarcasm

The two things that have lead to people living longer are clean water, and a safe food supply. For better or worse, government regulations are why those two things exist. They being said, there are a lot of regulations that can be rolled back but still ensure that our water is clean and we don't get listeria from something we eat.

I'm confused.

So why exactly do I see so many farmer's markets… where farmers are selling to their neighbors… if farmers can't sell to their neighbors?

Why do I know several ranchers and cattle feeders doing their own processing and selling direct to consumers?

But a hippie on the east coast says so, so it must be…

And anyone trying to blame Dr Borlaug for the existence of celiac disease (which is not remotely close to 20%, more like 0.6%) is too clueless for words to describe. I would suggest you take it up with the billion or so people who would not be alive without his life's work…

SunrayAg said:

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I'm confused.

So why exactly do I see so many farmer's markets… where farmers are selling to their neighbors… if farmers can't sell to their neighbors?

Why do I know several ranchers and cattle feeders doing their own processing and selling direct to consumers?

But a hippie on the east coast says so, so it must be…

And anyone trying to blame Dr Borlaug for the existence of celiac disease (which is not remotely close to 20%, more like 0.6%) is too clueless for words to describe. I would suggest you take it up with the billion or so people who would not be alive without his life's work…

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I'm a bit confused by this as well. I've only seen an increase over the years of locals selling to locals. But I also don't know anything about this topic. I feel like I've read that there has been a huge increase in the number of micro and small farms over the last several years but I have no idea if that is true.

G. hirsutum Ag said:

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I can promise you this is the last thing on our producers minds right now. American farmers are in SERIOUS trouble financially and no one seems to care. Inflation has absolutely crushed us and commodity prices continue to tank. From seed, fertilizer, and chemicals, to fuel, tires, batteries, oil, labor, and equipment, the zeros keep stacking up. We are making record yields this season and will likely lose money. This is across multiple operations covering 10s of 1000s acres with multiple different crops and commodities produced. I have had 2 producers go out in my region so far this season and will likely see many more.

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This needs repeating. It's true.

Mas89 said:

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G. hirsutum Ag said:

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I can promise you this is the last thing on our producers minds right now. American farmers are in SERIOUS trouble financially and no one seems to care. Inflation has absolutely crushed us and commodity prices continue to tank. From seed, fertilizer, and chemicals, to fuel, tires, batteries, oil, labor, and equipment, the zeros keep stacking up. We are making record yields this season and will likely lose money. This is across multiple operations covering 10s of 1000s acres with multiple different crops and commodities produced. I have had 2 producers go out in my region so far this season and will likely see many more.

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This needs repeating. It's true.

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Don't they have crop insurance?!

Logos Stick said:

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Mas89 said:

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G. hirsutum Ag said:

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I can promise you this is the last thing on our producers minds right now. American farmers are in SERIOUS trouble financially and no one seems to care. Inflation has absolutely crushed us and commodity prices continue to tank. From seed, fertilizer, and chemicals, to fuel, tires, batteries, oil, labor, and equipment, the zeros keep stacking up. We are making record yields this season and will likely lose money. This is across multiple operations covering 10s of 1000s acres with multiple different crops and commodities produced. I have had 2 producers go out in my region so far this season and will likely see many more.

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This needs repeating. It's true.

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Don't they have crop insurance?!

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1: you only use insurance when you have a crop failure. We claimed insurance last year on a lot of stuff after hurricane Beryl.

2: insurance will only get you partially back to where you were. If you farm correctly to make yield you won't ever get back what you put in on insurance.

Waffledynamics said:

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I guarantee you nobody is asking the government for permission to sell a bowl of tomato soup to their neighbor.

Yet.

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You are missing the point!

Waffledynamics said:

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I guarantee you nobody is asking the government for permission to sell a bowl of tomato soup to their neighbor.

Yet.

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I never knew our local farmer's market was so heavily regulated.

jt2hunt said:

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Waffledynamics said:

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I guarantee you nobody is asking the government for permission to sell a bowl of tomato soup to their neighbor.

Yet.

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You are missing the point!

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He needs to do a better job at making his point. Most posters here agree the government (at multiple levels) regulates the food industry far too much, but the person on the tweet "used a lot of words to say nothing".

Being hyperbolic isn't an effective way to make a point.

The scale that needs to change is astronomical larger than any farmers' market regulation. You need to enact policies that impact the scale of 90 million corn acres annually. Or 5 million sorghum acres, 10 million acres of cotton. Worrying about 4 acres of produce is never going to impact actual agriculture production.

We need commodity groups that generate their funds from the various crops to use it for developing domestic consumption of our crops versus lobbying for trade partners of the raw commodities. Commodity and lobby groups generate their funding through "check off" programs that farmers pay into after harvest. Instead of promoting textile industries in the US to use US cotton (world leader in quality) we spend it lobbying to ship it to China and SE Asia as a raw commodity with minimum margins.

An industry group I worked with once spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for a trade deal carve out to ship grain to Vietnam because they needed it for fish food pellets. Guess where they sold the pellets? US fish producers. Instead of pushing for domestic production and providing business grants we sent it to Vietnam and US politicians. Net gain for the producers? Commodity prices continued going down.

oldord said:

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I love Norman Borlaug as well, and he brought a lot of amazing things in the world.

However, what he allowed for was the building of a system through his improved plant species and genetically modified species


I think we will rue the day that we allowed his creations to become owned by the government industrial complex.

Once again, good intentions…..

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Dr Borlaug never genetically modified a species.

Never.

Not once.

Unfortunately, the modern media focuses on generating hysteria, and use the words "genetically modified" to generate that hysteria.

And unfortunately the huddled masses don't understand the difference between selective breeding, and genetic modification.

Wheat is 4.32/bu.

I for one am no fan of GMO Norm.

What does Norman Borlaug have anything to do with GMO? There is no gmo wheat

GMO Norm didn't double wheat yields by asking politely.

Pretty sure the genes were changed.

You have any proof of that? Sounds like a pretty baseless claim

Understandably people hear the word "genetics" and immediately think "genetic modification."

Borlaug did what is now pretty commonplace (meet and chat with the folks on Agronomy Road at TAMU): breeding, backcrossing, looking for new sports (mutants) etc…nothing different from what ancient societies did (Aztecs with Corn, Mesopotamians with wheat, etc.) He just revolutionized speeding up the process.

RFK Jr. whackadoodlery aside, the man was not sitting in labs injecting wheat with Tasmanian Devil genes.

Jack Boyett said:

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GMO Norm didn't double wheat yields by asking politely.

Pretty sure the genes were changed.

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^
The huddled masses I was talking about, who don't know the difference between selective breeding and genetic modification…

The ag industry has done a poor job of explaining the technology we use today and allowed kooks to fill the void who have an agenda. They explain to us farmers the benefits but not the consumer.
Wheat is 4.32 a bushel because it's cheap to raise around the world and the market is telling us we don't need it. Not because some dead guy helped develop higher yielding varieties and saved countless lives

Jack Boyett said:

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GMO Norm didn't double wheat yields by asking politely.

Pretty sure the genes were changed.

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Borlaug combined three different types of wheat from around the globe to resist lodging, primarily a dwarf wheat line. Because of the shorter wheat, farmers could push nitrogen rates and boost yields without the risk of lodging. It was all done using conventional/traditional breeding before anything could be genetically modified

Jack Boyett said:

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GMO Norm didn't double wheat yields by asking politely.

Pretty sure the genes were changed.

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Norman Borlaug bred high yielding tall wheat that would fall over and rot because the grain head became so heavy from so much grain with a dwarf variety of wheat that did not fall over.

This allowed wheat to yield more without falling over and rotting. It then allowed it to respond to higher fertility rates because of the dwarf trait that was VERY COMMON in wheat varieties.

More fertilizer increased yields more. Then he worked as an advocate for decades to improve the infrastructure in the third world to prevent the increased yields from rotting on a truck on the way to market allowing impoverished people around the world in urban settings to have access to food. This also allowed for surpluses to be shipped around the world.

ETA: Dr Borlaug is the single most prestigious professor to ever teach at Texas A&M and was an amazing human being in addition to being a scientist. I'm embarrassed a website dedicated to A&M wouldn't know his work.