Listen here for the story of Jesse Straight, a young poultry farmer whose heard his calling as a student at University of Virginia after reading Wendell Berry and Joel Saletin. Who says students learn nothing in college?
I found the most striking moment to be the prayer that Jesse says before the slaughter of his chickens. Were more of us more deeply aware of the sources of our food and sustenance, we would be similarly awed and grateful for all of our provisions and their ultimate source, and thereby inclined to treat the sources of our sustenance with stewardship rather than rapine. A genuine sense of the sacramental requires us to be close to the elemental, including blood and sweat. I’d like to take up the invitation to be part of the farm’s operations – perhaps other listeners in the DC area will be so tempted as well.
I haven’t listened to it yet, but I have to say this is encouraging. I’m a 22 year old college student myself and I want nothing more than to be a farmer someday. It’s a life goal.
As a 23-year-old who read Wendell Berry in college (not for class, of course!) and now wants to be a farmer, I appreciate this. Now there’s only the problem of how to get from here to there, without losing my soul in the process. Perilous waters, indeed.
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