JOEL SALATIN calls Abraham Lincoln our "worst president," not because he destroyed states' rights or Southern identity, but because he created the United States Department of Agriculture. "There is not another agency that has been so successful at annihilating its own constituency," he says. Since his star turn in Michael Pollan's bestselling Omnivore's Dilemma, Salatin has become a celebrity of the local-food movement. Pollan's book recounts a week spent at Polyface Farm, Salatin's 500-acre plot outside Staunton, Virginia.
