Joel Salatin is used to speaking in front of crowds.

“I do a lot of speaking around the country – foodies, sustainable farm groups, health and wellness groups,” said Salatin, author of nine books and a farmer at Polyface Inc., his family’s farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.

He also grew up on books.

“They were my pastime, my hobby,” he said.

On Tuesday, Salatin got to combine both when he spoke to more than 300 people at a Warren County Public Library event.

“I have a new talk for this group. I don’t do a lot of library talks,” he said. “These are people who appreciate language and words. I’m going to talk about the language of food and farming and especially how things you think they mean, don’t.”

Salatin challenged the audience to think about how words like “genome editing,” “grass fed,” “free range,” “organic,” “humane,” “safe,” “local food” and “science-based” made them feel.

“We’ve got to do a lot more talking. We dive into the -isms and they get a little bit squirrely,” he said. “We need to understand and know what these terms really mean. We have to keep up with the new language.”

For example, when some people think of free-range chickens they visualize the poultry uncaged and outside in the fresh air. Not so, Salatin said.

“Do you want to know what the (United States Department of Agriculture’s) definition of free range is? It means freedom of range for all appendages,” he said. “Did anybody think about a bird in a cage with a wing all the way out, a leg all the way out, a head all the way out?”

When it comes to organic foods, Salatin talked about carrots.

“There are a lot of different places the seeds can come from. There’s a lot of different soil where it can come from,” he said. “What about weed control? There are lots of different places where the labor could come from. I’ve just gotten started on carrots and you thought you knew what ‘organic’ was. This is not a comprehensive term. It’s a subjective term.”

Salatin’s latest books is “The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs,” which is not necessarily about pigs.

“It’s an environmental challenge to the religious right. The question is is what you believe in the pew showing up on your menu?” he asked. “Being kind to your neighbor, abundance, mercy – does our food and farm system show these principles? The broad faith community has not had that discussion.”

Some people who heard Salatin’s speech believed they took away a lot of useful information.

Laura Briner and her husband, Aaron, of Henderson have their own small farm, Laughing Lab Acres. They come to SS Enterprises of Warren County to get their chickens processed because it is the only USDA facility that caters to small producers, they said.

“We got to hear some of the language we use,” Laura Briner said.

The Briners wanted to show their support.

“This is what we agree with. We only have 24 acres,” he said. “It’s a small part, but this is where we can start.”

Susan Nelson of Bowling Green said she had seen a documentary about Salatin and became interested in his beliefs.

“I wanted to get some information on how he can help us,” she said. “We have bee hives and a garden.”

Nelson said she has more to learn.

“I need to be more educated on what you buy at the store and at the farmers market,” she said.

— Follow features reporter Alyssa Harvey on Twitter at @bgdnfeatures or visit bgdailynews.com.