In a world obsessed with ownership—patents, trademarks, proprietary secrets—there’s something radical about saying: Take what we know. Use it. Build something with it.
That’s the philosophy behind truly sustainable food systems. It’s the mindset that says knowledge isn’t meant to be hoarded—it’s meant to be shared.
Joel Salatin has long championed this idea, refusing to lock down his farming methods with legal barriers. “If a model can work for somebody else,” he says, “we are not going to circle the wagons and protect our knowledge base, our information base, our customer base.”
And that’s exactly how it should be.
The Problem with Hoarding Knowledge
Industrial agriculture thrives on exclusivity. It patents seeds, restricts farming methods, and builds walls around information that should be freely available. The result? A food system controlled by a handful of massive corporations, where farmers are forced into dependency rather than empowered to innovate.
But what if we flipped that model?
What if, instead of guarding knowledge, we shared it? What if farms became places of learning, where anyone willing to put in the work could gain the skills to build something of their own?
That’s the approach at Huckleberry Farms.
We don’t believe in keeping secrets. We don’t believe in protecting our methods as if they’re some exclusive formula. If you want to learn, come volunteer. If you want to start your own farm, we’ll help you figure it out. If you want to take what we do and replicate it next door—even if that means direct competition—we say: Go for it.
Because the truth is, transparency doesn’t weaken a movement. It strengthens it.
Why Open Knowledge Prevents Monopoly Thinking
Salatin argues that if this attitude were more common in the U.S. marketplace, the big companies wouldn’t have gotten so big. And he’s right.
Monopolies thrive on secrecy. They grow by limiting access, by making sure only a select few have the tools to succeed. But when knowledge is freely shared, power is decentralized. Instead of a handful of industrial giants controlling food production, we get thousands of independent farmers, each building something resilient, each contributing to a system that can’t be easily toppled.
That’s the future we want.
Come Learn. Come Build. Come Be Part of the Change.
At Huckleberry Farms, we don’t just talk about food sovereignty—we live it. And we want others to live it too.
That’s why we invite people to come out, volunteer, get their hands in the dirt, and learn firsthand what it takes to build a farm that works with nature instead of against it.
Because the more people who understand how to grow food, how to care for animals, how to create sustainable systems—the less dependent we all are on the fragile industrial model.
So if you’ve ever wanted to learn, now’s the time. No trademarks. No patents. No gatekeeping.
Just real solutions, ready for anyone willing to put in the work.
Reach out and schedule a time to volunteer and learn with us today! Contact us here.
