Paul,
As someone who has listened to all your podcasts and most of Jack's but has never raised a chicken, I offer the following perspective.
1) I think Jack should have also given you the opportunity to respond to the listener's question.
2) I don't think your podcast adequately addressed her original issue, which is she was ready to do it, read your article, and now thinks, "well, if I can't do it perfectly, then maybe I shouldn't do it at all." Much of Darby's answer (I think) stemmed from trying to allay her fears and encouraging her to try it. Similar to Salatin's, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing wrong," because you can't get good at something if you never try.
3) In that same vein, your article was the culmination of several years of trying different approaches. Jack is only in his first year of having chickens. His property (at least from what I gather about his descriptions) is mostly open pasture with little to know forest (yet). So perhaps his perspective will change as his property changes and his experience grows.
3a) As you say in the podcast, anything is better than factory farming, so it might be nice to include in the article something like "This was my evolution. I hope you'll start at what I consider the best, but start somewhere and observe for opportunities to improve."
4) I still think that much of the confusion stems from tractor the contraption vs tractor the philosophy. That said, with regard to scorched earth, I think Jack's point was, not that it should be done forever, but that if the chickens are used temporarily to SE in establishment of a better system, then to him it's an acceptable sacrifice. In other podcasts he has also qualified it saying he expected those chickens' offspring would reap the reward of a better environment. He's never advocated scorched earth in continuity.
On the bright side, this podcast finally got me to sign up for the dailyish e-mail and post on permies!
Paul, I love your work, and love your take on profits, the ethics, and woowoo.
