Joel Salatin Says He Has Been Tapped for USDA Role in the Next Trump Administration
Joel Salatin is a farmer, speaker, and author.
UPDATE 1:30 PM PST 11/6/24 - In a statement posted to X, Representative Thomas Massie says that while he stands ready to help President Trump, he has “received no commitments or offers from President Trump’s team, and any discussion of the transition are premature.”
Farmer and author Joel Salatin has announced he was contacted by the Trump transition team regarding a future role at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He also said Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky has “agreed" to serve as Secretary of Agriculture, replacing Tom Vilsack.
These reports have not yet been confirmed by Team Trump.
In a post to his blog, the self-described “Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer” describes the new team Trump is assembling as a turning point.
Dear folks, this is a watershed moment to take a creative and serious look at the sacred cows in our nation and fry some serious burgers. We don't know history. We don't know liberty. We don't know earthworms or aquifers or immune systems.
Salatin went on to praise Massie, his “favorite Congressman,” for sponsoring the PRIME Act which he calls “the biggest shot across the bow of the entrenched industrial meat processing system we’ve seen in a century.” If passed, the PRIME Act would exempt small meat processing facilities from federal inspection requirements for all in-state meat sales.
He also name-checked RFK Jr., referencing reports about his role in the next Trump administration. “If RFK Jr. goes in as Sec. of Health and Human Services, everything will be inverted,” he wrote. “Talk about the coolest turn about.”
Americans interested in knowing what a Salatin-influenced USDA would look like may find answers in a piece he wrote last month for the Brownstone Institute titled “Government Can Fix Neither Food Nor Farm.” In it, Salatin details his vision for American farming and food production free of government intervention, even criticizing RFK Jr.’s prescriptions for ag policy as “yet another request for government intervention.”
Instead Salatin lays out his plan, one that replaces the bureaucrat state with “private certification, independent research, and individual choice.” He calls for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing “the right of the people to grow food and to purchase food from the source of their choice” as well as the complete elimination of government intervention in health care, food, welfare, and education.
A beloved figure in American agriculture, Salatin is the author of several books including You Can Farm and Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal. He has described his outlook and approach to farming as guided by Biblical principles of earth stewardship. Salatin was featured in the bestselling book Omnivore’s Dilemma as well as the documentary Food Inc. He is the editor of The Stockman Grass Farmer, co-host of the Beyond Labels podcast, a columnist, and a speaker. He owns and manages Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, where he lives with four generations of his family.