Behind America's Growing 'Food Freedom' Movement

Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times,

Joel Salatin wants to liberate Americans from over-regulation with neighbor-to-neighbor food commerce.

Salatin, who runs Polyface Farm in the hills of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, is pitching the concept of a "Food Emancipation Proclamation."

Chickens, turkeys, and cows at Polyface Farms, in Swoope, Va., and The Family Cow, in Chambersburg, Pa., in these file photos. The regenerative farms are part of a growing push for “food emancipation”—neighbors feeding neighbors. Courtesy of Polyface Farms, Courtesy of The Family Cow

Through what he envisions as a federal declaration, consenting adults would be allowed to buy and sell homemade and farmstead food directly, without the costly commercial infrastructure and cumbersome government regulation currently in place.

Salatin's mission reflects a push among homesteaders and independent farmers to cultivate local food networks, where food is grown and raised without chemicals and consumers can gain a more transparent connection to how food is produced.

The Next 15 Years

At its core, food emancipation and local food networks are about neighbors feeding neighbors, sidestepping a system many no longer trust.

Salatin told The Epoch Times that the American food system is at a historic inflection point. He points to an aging farm class; the average American farmer is now around 60 years old.

Around half of U.S. agricultural equity is expected to change hands in the next 15 years, he said.