Joel Salatin is one of the leaders of the sustainable farming/beyond organic/pastured animal/local foods movement (we have to condense all those down to some acronym one of these days), and he was selected by his Senator to go to Washington and take part in the “Green Jobs Leadership Summit” (each Senator got to select only one person to go):

I received an invitation from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to paticipate in the Green Jobs Leadership Summit hosted by the Senate Democratic Caucus in the Russell Senate Office Building. His invitation read: “This half-day event will feature discussions focused on creating clean energy jobs and supporting the new green economy. Because of your company’s leadership in the clean energy and green manufacturing industries,  Senator Webb [Va. Senator Jim Webb] has nominated you to represent Virginia at the Green Jobs Leadership Summit.”

I contacted Sen. Webb’s office for clarification and was assured that I might even have five minutes with Vice President Joe Biden, but surely I would have plenty of face time with senators. Each senator was allowed one nominee, and I was Webb’s representative. That was kind of cool, and with a total potential of 100 people from across the U.S., this sounded like indeed it might be something where I could get my message to some high levels.

But instead of being a forum where ideas could be exchanged and where Salatin’s wisdom could be voiced to the Senators and other Green leaders:

The front table was cordoned off and guarded by security until VP Joe Biden came. He spoke about the wonderful things the stimulus package was doing, then shook hands with about 8 senators in a reserved section, then was quickly whisked away. So much for face time.

What followed were two panels, primarily senators, simply giddy over how they were rescuing the country. The senators would flow in for their 1 minute of clapping praise from the industry audience, then gave 3 minutes of Democratic salvation exuberance, then quickly left for more important matters. Once each panel finished their preramble (Ha!) monologues, just a few minutes were left for the lucky few who could navigate to the microphone in a nearly unreachable corner to ask questions and make comments to the panel.

Salatin managed to get to the microphone and say his piece but Democrat Sen. Mark Udall from Colorado interrupted him and told him “he has plenty of friends in the USDA” (which is sadly ironic since Salatin has written an entire book about how government agencies have tried shutting down his farm time and time again).  When Salatin responded that he had looked and had not found any friends there, the senators cut off his microphone, and he was sent back home to Virginia.

Joel Salatin

Salatin is not the kind of change that Obama and his administration have been looking for.  He is the “wrong kind of Green”, someone with ideas that are truly different and would actually help our country, I believe.  But the Senators (and I include Republicans in this, too, though I don’t know if any were at this summit) don’t know what to do with him nor how to even process what he is telling them.  Instead of more regulation, he advocates less regulation!  This kind of talk is off their radars.