Pace Academy Hosts 'America's Most Famous Farmer' Next Month

Staff Report

The Pace Academy and Atlanta communities are invited to an evening with Isdell Center for Global Leadership (ICGL) Visiting Scholar Joel Salatin on Monday, Oct. 5, at 6:30 p.m.

The free event, an initiative of the ICGL’s Year of FOOD (www.paceacademy.org/icgl), will include discussion about pressing food issues with America’s most famous farmer. Featured in Michael Pollan’s 2006 bestseller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and the 2008 documentary Food, Inc., Salatin runs Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. He is a full-time, third-generation alternative farmer, an advocate for the sustainable-food movement, the author of nine books and countless articles and a sought-after speaker.The Washington Post calls Salatin an “eco-friendly, avant-garde Old MacDonald,” someone “who can appeal to [the] left, right and center” of the political spectrum; Pollan calls him “the most influential farmer in the country.”Salatin will share with the Pace community his tremendous energy, thought-provoking commentary, and hands-on and practical knowledge about food production. He hopes his visit will bring food to the forefront of every-day discussions at Pace Academy and in the Atlanta area.

“For too long food has been placed on the back burner of our minds,” Salatin says. “The result is a culture that leads the world in the five chronic diseases. Perhaps thinking about what our bodies need and how we viscerally interact with our ecological umbilical cord is more important than we once thought. Indeed, it is the starting point toward healing.”

The event is free and open to the public. It will take place in Knights Hall, located on the fifth floor of Pace Academy’s Garcia Family Middle School. Follow signs for event parking. Pace Academy is located at 966 W. Paces Ferry Road NW, Atlanta, GA 30327.