Epoch Times - Joel Salatin: Why America Needs a ‘Food Emancipation Proclamation’
Aired: 2025-10-01
Duration: 04:12


=== Want Liberty, Not Regulation (04:12) ===

[00:00:00]  We need a food emancipation proclamation.
[00:00:03]  And so I'm not an abolitionist.
[00:00:05]  I disagree with some of my friends in this, that we want to outlaw Monsanto.
[00:00:09]  We want to outlaw glyphosate, outlaw ractopamine in pork.
[00:00:13]  I don't like that stuff either.
[00:00:15]  But when you look for solutions in a society, a culture has got a problem.
[00:00:20]  Asking for a regulatory solution is the worst option possible.
[00:00:26]  Yeah, you want a market solution.
[00:00:28]  That's what you're asking.
[00:00:29]  Exactly.
[00:00:29]  Yeah, you want a liberty solution.
[00:00:31]  Can we solve this with freedom?
[00:00:33]  So I'm not interested in being an abolitionist necessarily.
[00:00:36]  What I do want is a viable underground railroad so that those of us who want to escape the shackles of the regulatory system and take ownership of our food choices can do so.
[00:00:50]  And if we did, the price of local food would drop by 30 or 40 percent.
[00:00:55]  So suddenly now really good food is available to non-wealthy people.
[00:01:02]  Food deserts would go away because empty lots could be turned into food things and people could make food in their kitchens and offer it there in the community.
[00:01:15]  Then there would be an on-ramp for thousands and thousands of young farmers with small acreages to be able to make a full-time living on their farm.
[00:01:26]  There isn't really a danger to this large-scale farming system through this, is there?
[00:01:31]  It doesn't feel, it feels to me like something that can work side by side and if it will be able to reverse it.
[00:01:36]  And it'll help and it'll help them because it will kind of challenge them to become better in ways that maybe they're not being challenged right now.
[00:01:43]  They don't want to be challenged to be better.
[00:01:45]  Like my point is you don't need to create regulations to stop the big farms from doing what they're doing.
[00:01:51]  You don't need to do anything.
[00:01:53]  Let them do their thing.
[00:01:54]  Just let these people do their thing.
[00:01:56]  Food buyers would leave the industrial system en masse if alternatives were cheaper, more available, and more abundant.
[00:02:06]  Well, but now you're telling me why they should be scared.
[00:02:09]  And they should be, which is why they don't want this to happen.
[00:02:12]  Right.
[00:02:13]  If they admit a lot of people are going to buy from these guys, then you have to admit there is a yearning in the marketplace for this that you're stopping.
[00:02:25]  Yeah.
[00:02:26]  And so, you know, they tend to want to eliminate.
[00:02:29]  I think they want it simple.
[00:02:30]  They've got a system.
[00:02:31]  They've got it going.
[00:02:32]  They don't want trouble.
[00:02:33]  You know, they've got a good steady stream of cash.
[00:02:36]  You know, this is disruptive, as Uber obviously was.
[00:02:41]  Oh, look at the chauffeur industry and how they were.
[00:02:47]  Well, and the medallions in New York City and all of this, right?
[00:02:50]  So it's disruptive.
[00:02:52]  But at the same time, I think it would be very positive for everybody.
[00:02:56]  Oh, right.
[00:02:57]  Well, it would be positive if you really had a liberty-centric system.
[00:03:04]  Who wins and who loses?
[00:03:07]  All right.
[00:03:08]  Who wins?
[00:03:09]  Well, the average person wins.
[00:03:13]  Farmers who want to participate win.
[00:03:16]  Who loses?
[00:03:17]  Well, maybe people aren't as sick anymore, so hospitals lose.
[00:03:22]  People are going to choose chicken that's not Tyson's, so Tyson loses.
[00:03:27]  It's the entrenched oligarchy, frankly, that loses in a free market system.
[00:03:35]  The ones that win are the ones that offer opportunity and choice.
[00:03:42]  I would argue that these large-scale operations that are sort of deep in the system and providing the food to America as we speak, I mean, it would help them to get better.
[00:03:54]  And I think that's positive.
[00:03:56]  Absolutely.
[00:03:56]  Oh, I do too.
[00:03:57]  I mean yeah, philosophically, absolutely.
[00:03:59]  If they were suddenly pressured by 100,000 little competitors, we would see changes very fast.
[00:04:10]  And this is really the best part of capitalism, isn't it?