Page 21 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 2 Winter 2013

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ranch.com). It is filled with photos of his farm family, the
most physically arresting of whom are the Scottish cattle,
with their luxuriant manes of curly hair that come in
a range of hues. “They’re great moms, grazers, and fora-
gers,” he says, with a note of reverence in his voice. “And
docile, too.”
He doesn’t sidestep the issue about the prospect of
slaughtering these beautiful animals, but waxes philo-
sophic before reverting to the lessons of nature, “We
have to make choices about where our nutrition comes
from. Raising and eating animals that live great lives on
perennial pasture is a much better choice than choosing
animals from overcrowded feedlots.”
The animals’ lives are entwined in the Griswold family
life. “We name our animals. Some will be with us for 18+
years; that’s a long relationship,” he says. “We’re not going
to hold the animals at arm’s length.”
Ranching has given Griswold’s children a healthy per-
spective on the value of life. “It’s taken my kids a while
to adjust, but they are able to look at everything with
healthy skepticism, question conventional wisdom, and
make up their own minds.”
From a dollars and cents perspective, Griswold cannot
yet claim success. But what he’s learned from listening
to his animals and observing nature is immeasurable.
“When in doubt, look to nature. How does it handle the
hard things? Everything happens for a reason.”
Oliver Griswold ’79
WHEN IN DOUBT, LOOK TO NATURE
viation industry veteran Oliver Griswold, who
designed a plane for his Sixth Form Independent
Study Project, found himself considering the farmer’s life
when his mother’s heart problems and father’s dementia
led him to look closely at the relationship between disease,
food production, and soil. A zealous student of nature who,
inspired by his dog, challenged conventional wisdom and
went barefoot for five years (marathons included), Griswold
was catapulted into action after reading Michael Pollan’s
The Omnivore’s Dilemma , in particular the chapter on Joel
Salatin of Polyface Farm, which Griswold later visited.
“It was a light bulb moment,” he recalls of the farm in
Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley that has become a national
beacon for local agriculture and environmentally friendly
farming practices. “Salatin’s farm throws off more nutri-
tion per acre than just about any other in the country,”
Griswold says.
He raises 100-percent grass-fed Scottish Highland beef
cattle (which he first saw at the Trapp Family Lodge in the
early 1980s) and heritage Berkshire pigs on 180 acres of
pasture and woodlands in Western Pennsylvania, employ-
ing methodologies that closely mimic nature.
“The more diversity you can have on any piece of land,
the better off you are,” says Griswold, describing a farmer’s
utopia, where wild birds and wild animals all do their part
to preserve a bio-diverse ecology. “When the chemicals
kill the grasshopper, they kill all the other nutritious things
as well.”
Griswold chronicles life on North Woods Ranch, which
he runs with his wife, Jodi, on his website (www.nwoods-
A
Griswold tending to some of his many animals at North
Woods Ranch, which he runs with his wife, Jodi. (Photos
by Oliver and Jodi Griswold.)