Soil And Soul the Future of Farming

What are the hidden costs of agribusiness, with its chemical dependent mega farms? Poor nutrition is one and physical and mental illness, connected to poor nutrition, are on the rise in the United States. Farmers Michael Ableman and Joel Salatin express the soul that is returning to farming the land. Here come the chicken tractors, and the pigorators. 

Bios: 

Michael Ableman is the founder and Director of the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens in Santa Barbara, CA, a working farm and non-profit community education center that is an important national model for urban agriculture and farmland preservation. A writer/photographer who lectures around the world, he is the author of From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World and On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm. 

Joel Salatin is a third-generation authentic food farmer promoting food production that is environmentally sound and economically viable for both producer and consumer. He has authored four books on the food production system. His columns regularly appear in ACRES USA and Stockman Grass Farmer magazines. 

Bioneers Series III includes the following programs: 

• BN301 Part 1: The Duh Principle: Better Safe Than Sorry
• BN302 Part 2: Energy Security: the Growth of Soft Energy
• BN303 Part 3: Light At The Edge of The World: Reinventing The Poetry of Diversity
• BN304 Part 4: Greening Medicine: the Mainstreaming of Herbs
• BN305 Part 5: Soil and Soul: The Future of Farming
• BN306 Part 6: I Heard the Voice Of A Porkchop: The Theoretical Promise Versus The Actual Perils Of Genetically Modified Organisms
• BN307 Part 7: Less Is More : Toward A Zero Discharge Industry
• BN308 Part 8: Daughters of Thoreau: Not Too Well Behaved
• BN309 Part 9: Plants and People: Who's Cultivating Who?
• BN310 Part 10: Getting the Real Story: Bypassing Corporate Media
• BN311 Part 11: Nature As Healer: Restoring Life As Community
• BN312 Part 12: The Wonders of Gaia: Nature is Symbiotic
• BN313 Part 13: Nature and Spirit: It's All Connected 

The Bioneers series consists of three sets of 13 programs each:
Bioneers Series I The Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature
Bioneers Series II Improving Environment By Changing The World
Bioneers Series III 

Inspired by the philosophies of the Deep Ecology movement, the Bioneers are heroic examples of people living as if nature mattered. Join us as we look deeply into the magic and mystery of the convergence between leading-edge science and ancient wisdom for a Declaration of Interdependence for the new millennium. Though these programs were produced in the 1990s the contents of this series are timelessly relevant. 

HOST: Michael Toms     INTERVIEW DATE: 2002            PROGRAM NUMBER: BN305