Joel Salatin

Joel F. Salatin (born February 24, 1957) is an American farmer, lecturer, and author.

Salatin raises livestock on his Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Meat from the farm is sold by direct marketing to consumers and restaurants.

Early life and education Salatin's father worked for a major petroleum company, Texas Oil, using his earnings to purchase a 1,000-acre farm in Venezuela. Salatin describes in his book You Can Farm how his family were involved in “wildcat oil drilling,” and after “clearing some of the jungle” to establish a chicken and dairy farm, "in a totally free market…without government regulations” they quickly “cornered the poultry market.” The family left Venezuela in 1959 following the 1958 election of President Rómulo Betancourt who instituted a program to redistribute land.

Influenced by their Biblical understanding of earth stewardship and J. I. Rodale, Salatin's parents, William and Lucille, relocated and purchased a farm in the Shenandoah Valley in 1961 and began restoring its land. In high school, Salatin began his own business selling rabbits, eggs, butter and chicken from the farm at the Staunton Curb Market. He then attended Bob Jones University where he majored in English and was a student leader, graduating in 1979.

Salatin married his childhood sweetheart Teresa in 1980 and became a feature writer at the Staunton, Virginia, newspaper, The News Leader, where he had worked earlier typing obituaries and police reports.

Salatin condemns the negative impact of the United States government on his livelihood because of what he considers an increasingly regulatory approach taken toward farming. He is a self-described "Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer", producing meat he describes as "beyond organic", using environmentally responsible, ecologically beneficial, sustainable agriculture. Jo Robinson said of Salatin, "He's not going back to the old model. There's nothing in county extension or old-fashioned ag science that really informs him. He is just looking totally afresh at how to maximize production in an integrated system on a holistic farm. He's just totally innovative." and teaches a two-day course on agribusiness marketing in conjunction with this magazine. He has authored seventeen books including Folks, This Ain't Normal, You Can Farm, Salad Bar Beef and Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal.

In November 2019 Salatin wrote a blog post responding to a blog post by Chris Newman, another Virginia farmer and owner of Sylvanaqua Farms, in which Newman critiques the small family farm model and describes an alternative, vertically integrated system rooted in collective ownership. Salatin said in his article that Newman, who is black and Native American, was too early in his farming career to know whether he would be successful in the long-term, and that Newman would only "push would-be team players away" by complaining - writing "The problem with disagreeing with Chris is that I'll be called a racist [...] Is it more racist to play the race card to anybody who dares disagree with you than it is to actually be a racist?" and concluding "When I think of William Cody mounting a U.S. Postal Service Pony Express horse at the age of 13 and riding through paths lined with hostile Native Americans, I wonder where he is today. Fortunately, he's here; rare, but here." After Salatin's remarks, Mother Earth News created the "Voices" initiative for the publication for diversity in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. After public criticism of the publication's support for Salatin, Mother Earth News ultimately severed its relationship with Salatin.

Speaking Salatin has spoken as a farming educator at a wide range of organizations including the University of California at Berkeley, and the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.

Salatin and his farm have also been featured in radio, television and print media including Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, Gourmet, and ABC News.

In 2025, Angel Studios published the documentary The Lunatic Farmer about Joel and his farm.

Awards Salatin received the 15th Annual Heinz Award with special focus on the environment.

Received the American Pastured Poultry Producers (APPPA.org) Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the pastured poultry movement.

Works

Salad Bar Beef (1996). Pastured Poultry Profits (1996). You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise (1998). Family Friendly Farming: A Multigenerational Home-Based Business Testament (2001). Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer's Guide to Farm Friendly Food (2005). Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front (2007). The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer (2010).

Fields of Farmers: Interning, Mentoring, Partnering, Germinating (2013). The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs (2016). Your Successful Farm Business: Production, Profit, Pleasure (2017). Polyface Designs: A Comprehensive Construction Guide for Scalable Farming Infrastructure (2020). (together with Chris Slattery) Polyface Micro: Success with Livestock on a Homestead Scale (2021). Homestead Tsunami: Good for Country, Critters, and Kids (2023).