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Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front | 
 enlarge | Author: Joel Salatin
Publisher: Polyface
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $11.00
You Save: $12.95 (54%)
New (29) Used (8) Collectible (1) from $10.94
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 18961
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 0963810952
Dewey Decimal Number: 631.584097559
EAN: 9780963810953
ASIN: 0963810952
Publication Date: September 17, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Drawing upon 40 years experience as an ecological farmer and marketer, Joel Salatin explains with humor and passion why Americans do not have the freedom to choose the food they purchase and eat. From child labor regulations to food inspection, bureaucrats provide themselves sole discretion over what food is available in the local marketplace. Their system favors industrial, global corporate food systems and discourages community-based food commerce, resulting in homogenized selection, mediocre quality, and exposure to non-organic farming practices. Salatins expert insight explains why local food is expensive and difficult to find and will illuminate for the reader a deeper understanding of the industrial food complex.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Lots of opinions, but where's the evidence? October 15, 2008
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
More of a political piece than I would have hoped for, Joel Salatin did prepare me for his rant-laced manifesto when he titled his book Everything I Want to do is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front. I had wrongfully assumed that Salatin would offer stories and anecdotes regarding procuring and selling local foods. Instead, I was greeted with a long-winded, bitter outburst that provided few real solutions for what Salatin deems to be the e.coli to his beef: government bureaucrats.
The true "meat and potatoes" issue in this book is an issue that I do empathize with: his frustrations dealing with bureaucrats and seemingly ridiculous rules and regulations that most agree are designed for corporations and big agribusiness and are forced to make sense in the world of the local farmer. While wading through the insatiated and incensed rhetoric of Salatin's grievances against the government, readers can recognize the need for a separate, applicable set of rules and regulations for the local farmer, although those are not the desires of Salatin himself as a farmer who longs for the absence of all regulation.
I feel this book may only appeal to other readers who suspect and distrust the government as much as Salatin does. Perhaps my disappointment in this book lies more in what I expected from it and how it differs vastly from what I received. Salatin's attacks on government policy and government workers who he identifies as bureaucrats display a rampant mistrust of any authority figure, especially those who threaten the livelihood of his farm. Ironically, Salatin's utter hatred of the bureaucrat is reminiscent of the average consumer who is suspicious of food items that do not hold government-safety-inspected seals.
While his points about more rules and regulations being for big agribusiness and not taking the local farmer or food producer into consideration, the points could have been made in a more thoughtful, amicable way than was offered. However, when someone introduces themselves to you as "a third generation-Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-capitalist lunatic" what else would one expect but this reading, in its truest form? I do not empathize with Salatin's argument for the complete absence of regulation, but I do think that a separate, compassionate, and flexible set of rules need to be drafted and tailored directly to the constraints of the local farmer; rules that assure the quality of the food being offered to local consumers. That being said, I do sympathize with Salatin's position on the possibilities of our food vocabulary containing the words "irradiated," "genetically adulterated," and "reconstituted," however, our paths are divergent when reaching the end goal of delicious, fresh, local foods for as many as possible.
Salatin believes an overprotective, overinvolved government is the source of all his woes. However, his unsubstantiated assertions offer very little in terms of viable solutions. The book is more a rant against the national, state, and local governments than a real discussion about local food. Through the ranting, Salatin does manage to primordially stamp out an edict for a change in policy to allow local farmers to become self-sustaining entrepreneurs that meet the wants and needs of their local foodsystems.
 Mandatory reading October 11, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I found this book very enlightening and I think everyone should read this book at least once. I would compare his anecdotes to those of Upton Sinclair when he wrote the The Jungle. This is why you see so much criticism among these reviews, because the things he writes about are rather shocking to those of us outside the farming community. None of us liked to read about the things that went on in the meatpacking industry and I doubt most people would pick Sinclair's book a second time for that reason, it's impressions were that strong the first time around. Well the same can be said for this book and that's why some here have criticized him so voraciously. You won't step away from this book without seeing things differently, it's really that insightful.
Beyond the subject matter, the writing is engaging for the most part and I think most everyone will find it as such. I didn't like the page formatting, since he double spaces between paragraphs, but this is relatively minor. I might add that on a couple of occasions he presses too hard on a few points. It's as if he wants to convince people of his message before telling the whole story. His story is enough to convince people, so this preaching and double spacing does feel like he's trying to add bulk to the book.
His story really needs to be told, so I hope everyone reading this review will take the time to read this book. I can even envision that one day schoolchildren will be reading this and Sinclair side by side. They'll then wonder if people and government really were like that prior to their generation. If you stopped eating hotdogs after reading The Jungle, you'll probably start eating locally after this one, it's really that compelling.
 This Guy is a Nut! September 1, 2008
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
Salatin is a nut, but a very interesting nut. Now, this book is titled "Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal" and so I should expect complaining. But, this book was over the top. He justs rants. In his view, no one but him can figure anything out. He will argue for a position in one chapter but against it in another. For instance, he says chicken should be tested based upon the birds health levels, not how the bird is taken care of. But when government inspectors show up at his farm to test his birds for bird flu, he feels he is being persecuted. He makes some interesting points, but he also gets some basic facts wrong (e.g. he says the VFW database was recently hacked into, but it was the Department of Veterans Affairs - the former is a private organization, the later is public). Also, more than complaining about how what he wants to do is illegal, he just complains. It seems that everyone is dumber than he is. He complains that regulations hurt him, but ignore the fact that there are many businees out there that would do even less without the regulations. His theory that the market will work itself out assumes that everyone cares as much as him. Dispite all this though, the book is an entertaining read.
Great Book July 13, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Well written, humorous stories from an independent small farmer detailing his struggles with government oversight and inspection. The role of the USDA in particular and government regulators as presented by Salatin is to make things as difficult as possible for the independent farmer.
Most of the health problems in the US directly arise from the industrial food system. Local, independent food is the answer!
Everything I want to do is illegal July 9, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Joel Salatin is a pionner. He is opening the way for all of us in tomorrow's world of good food coming from self sustaining farm. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in your future.
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