I see Joe Salatin is at this event:
Homesteaders of America
Am I the only Agrarian in the world who isn't a Salatin fan?
I can't even really explain why. I'd heard of him way back when and then bought one of his books and was not impressed. Since then, I've learned that he inherited his farm back east from his father, who was a hardworking accountant who bought it back, apparently, in the day when you could still afford to buy farm land.
That's part, I guess, of what bothers me. He has a book with a title of something like "You Can Farm", but frankly, in a lot of the country, you aren't going to be able to become a full time farmer unless you were born into it. That's the brutal reality of it, and the thing that needs to be addressed.
While I'm at it, while I'm a prolific writer and love doing it, that's not everyone's cup of tea. I think a lot of would be agrarians (I don't like the term "homesteader", as I think it's inaccurate) imagine just living off the land, on a small acreage farm. That's really hard, indeed impossible, to do without some production that can be sold. At least one of the participants in this conference works off the farm in a nearby very small town and is pretty active in other promotional endeavors. I'm not saying that person isn't genuine, but that's not the same thing as being one of Jefferson's yeomen.
I could go on, but I'll just note, I'm not a fan, and I can't even really explain why.
Well, I probably shouldn't be. While traveling to a homesteading conference strikes me as sort of contra agrarian, I hope that the attendees have a good time and learn a lot of valuable information.
