The Dirt Beneath Your Clothes - with Joel Salatin

What if your wardrobe and your dinner plate are telling the same story?This week Kathleen sits down with Joel Salatin — farmer, author, provocateur, and co-owner of Polyface Farm in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley — to ask a question the fashion industry hasn't thought to ask a regenerative farmer: what does soil health have to do with what we wear?The answer turns out to be everything.Joel and Kathleen cover a lot of ground in this conversation (pun intended) — from the philosophy of minimalism to the theology of dualism, from Australian merino microns to the cobbler who could make shoes that last a lifetime. But underneath all of it runs a single conviction: there is no part of life outside the interests of God, including what hangs in your closet.In this episode:Why Joel asks people to "look through their plate" — and why the same question applies to your wardrobeThe Western dualism problem: how St. Augustine's body/spirit split quietly shaped how we think (and don't think) about consumptionWhy the faith community threw the baby out with the bathwater on environmental stewardshipThe difference between worrying about clothes and thinking about them — and why it mattersHow fast fashion got its start on the runway in the 1860s and where it ends up today (hint: Uganda)Australian wool, merino microns, and why quality fiber is worth every pennyWhat true wealth looks like on a farm — and why it might apply to your closet tooThis week's thread to follow: Pick three pieces from your closet and read the fiber labels. Ask yourself what those fibers required — what soil, what chemicals, what labor. Stewardship starts with attention.About Joel Salatin: Joel is the co-owner of Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, and the author of 16 books on regenerative agriculture. He's been featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and the documentary Food, Inc.Learn more at polyfacefarms.com.