December 2025 Issue

Contents

December 2025 • Issue #654

Photo: TOC photo (Courtesy of Taylor Henry) — Taylor Henry’s cattle graze on bales over the winter. 

FEATURES

The Real Objective of Food Production
The function of a farmer is not to grow bins and bushels — it’s to grow quality food that produces minds capable of thought and reason
BY CHARLES WALTERS

Six Keys to Biological Farming
How to transition your farm to organic or regenerative
BY GARY ZIMMER

How Nature Selects
Thriving cattle develop superior body shape, excellent glandular function and high butterfat
BY STEVE CAMPBELL

DI-Why Homemade Mineral Mixes?
Our livestock give their entire being to us — it’s the least we can do to protect and nourish them generously, and that means providing them a professionally prepared mineral mix
BY WILL WINTER

Whatever Happened to Old-School Environmentalism?
1970s environmentalism was simple: don’t pollute; today we’ve made a devil of the very element that is the building block of life: carbon
BY MOLLIE ENGELHART

A Legacy Rooted in the Soil
The future of agriculture won’t be built on subsidies or slogans — it’ll be built by Acres U.S.A.-type people who believe that farming can be both ecological and profitable
BY TAYLOR HENRY

DEPARTMENTS

VIEW FROM THE COUNTRY
Monthly musings from Acres U.S.A.’s editor

OPINION
A Food Emancipation Proclamation
Food regulations are about controlling market access, not safety; exempting producer-patron interactions from government interference is the best way to help farmers — and to make food healthy again
BY JOEL SALATIN

ECO-UPDATE
News in brief on developments in agronomic science

REGEN AGRONOMY
The Biophysics of Pest Resistance
The health of a plant is entirely defined by its ability to respond to oxidative stress and to maintain an internal state of electrical balance.

BY JOHN KEMPF

INTERVIEW
Ecological Agriculture Works
North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown demonstrates how understanding ecosystem processes enables profitable farming

REVIEWS

MARKETPLACE

CLASSIFIEDS

ECO-MEETINGS

ECO-GRAPHIC