Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal
War Stories from the Local Food Front
by Joel Salatin
Everything I Want to Do is Illegal is a riveting and educational book in which author, Joel Salatin, describes a generations-long battle. On one side: the goliath agricultural industry and unfeeling government bureaucrats. On the other: small, hometown, traditional farmers and artisans.
Salatin will recount wanting to do something simple like selling eggs or meat to a neighbor. Then he’ll explain how this activity is technically illegal without the farmer jumping through a long list of government hoops. He uses this method again and again throughout the book; for organic food labeling, selling unpasteurized milk, hiring local youth, and on.
According to Salatin, all the regulations and procedures demanded by the government result in oppressing small farmers and would-be entrepreneurs to the point where they are driven from business or dissuaded from even starting.
It seems that agriculture in America has gotten to the point where the regulations created to protect the consumer instead deprive him/her of healthy and local foods and products. To fix these problems, Salatin has plenty of ideas; he’s not just a critic.
Given the success of the Polyface Farm and the size of Salatin’s following, there is clearly a demand for the kind of food he produces and something appealing about what he has to say.
Salatin, an experienced orator, tries to shock his audience, appeal to their emotions about right and wrong, and bring them to his side.
In general, Salatin succeeds. The title got me to pick up the book, and I agree with the author more than not.
But it isn’t Salatin’s sensationalism that attracts me, though that certainly amps up the book’s energy. Instead, it’s the logic of what he has to say.
I grew up on a small farm. I’ve spent weekends at a farm booth at the local farmers market. I’ve seen the devastation wrought by larger-scale farms just next door. I know about youth unemployment in rural areas, and I’ve friends who butcher their own chickens and who have enrolled themselves in an unpasteurized milk-share program with a local farm.
Perhaps nothing exceptional about this for those who live or grew up in a rural area. But what I mean is local farming and how food is produced affects everyone, even the urbanites.
Reading Everything I Want to Do is Illegal, I can tell that Salatin is closely involved with his community and the national food system.
Even if you are not inclined to listen to Salatin’s more spectacular claims and arguments, and believe me, much of his personality and thoughts turn me off, Everything That I Want to Do is Illegal is still worth reading.
If you are even mildly interested in agriculture, the environment, eating well, libertarianism, or conspiracies, you would profit from reading Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal.
All I hope is that some of America’s food system have changed in the 15 years since this book came out.
Did you read Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal? Do you run/work on a small farm in America? What do you think about the regulations for American farms and food industry?