Physician and researcher co-authored new book on self-sufficient living after four decades of experience on six farms
By Guy Page
Dr. Robert Malone, a physician and researcher who became a nationally prominent and controversial figure during the COVID-19 pandemic, is the the guest on Chronicle Conversations today, discussing his new book on homesteading, his experience raising livestock and growing food, and the science and public policy debates that shaped his career.
The program airs from noon to 1 p.m. on WVMT AM 620, FM 101.3 and online and by podcast at WVMTradio.com. Callers are welcome at 888-414-0303. Malone joins the program at about 12:34 PM.
Malone is co-author, with his wife, Dr. Jill Malone, of Homesteading for Health: One Farm Family’s Guide to Food, Land, and Self-Sufficiency. The book draws on four decades of experience across six farms in Maryland, Georgia and Virginia.
The Malones describe a learning process that included rebuilding neglected property, raising their family on homegrown food, improving depleted soil, keeping livestock and breeding Percheron draft horses. Their experiences form the foundation for a practical guide to developing a more self-sufficient household.
The book covers financing rural property, raising chickens and other livestock, gardening, composting, rotational grazing, preserving food and managing a working homestead. It also advances the authors’ arguments about the relationship between food production, nutrition, agricultural policy and health.
The Malones contend that families can take steps toward self-sufficiency without necessarily acquiring large farms. A backyard garden, laying hens or homegrown ingredients can be a starting point, they argue.
Vermont’s homesteading potential
Vermont offers a natural setting for a discussion about homesteading, with its longstanding agricultural traditions, working farms, forests and rural communities.
The state had 6,537 farms and nearly 1.17 million acres of farmland in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, according to the University of Vermont Extension’s summary of the census. More than half of Vermont farms reported less than $10,000 in annual agricultural sales, illustrating the prevalence of small-scale operations alongside larger commercial farms.
Vermont also has a state program designed to help keep agricultural and forest land in production. The Current Use program assesses qualifying land according to its agricultural or forestry use rather than its potential market value for development. More than 19,000 parcels totaling over 2.5 million acres were enrolled in the program, according to the Vermont Department of Taxes.
Vermont also has a burgeoning property rights movement, Rural Vermont Rising, advocating for less regulation on how farmers use their property.
And, rural land can still be had for less than $2000/per acre, depending of course on location, location, location – notably in the Northeast Kingdom, according to Planyourhomestead.com.
For prospective homesteaders, those features can be attractive. Existing farms, agricultural suppliers and a culture of local food production, including open raw milk production and sales laws, can provide a foundation for people seeking to grow more of their own food or establish small agricultural enterprises.
But homesteading in Vermont also presents practical challenges. Long winters, Mud Season, flooding, and a relatively short growing season require planning for animal feed, heating, food storage and seasonal production. Land prices, access to water, soil quality, road conditions and the cost of developing a property can make the difference between an appealing rural purchase and a workable homestead.
Vermont has also experienced continuing pressure on its agricultural land. The 2022 census documented a loss of 313 dairy farms between 2017 and 2022, a decline of 37 percent, according to UVM Extension. That trend underscores the economic pressures facing traditional agriculture even as interest in local food and small-scale farming continues.
From vaccine research to COVID-19 controversy
Malone’s public profile extends well beyond agriculture.
A physician with a background in immunology and research, he contributed to early scientific work on delivering messenger RNA into cells. Papers he co-authored in 1989 and 1990 explored how lipid-based delivery of RNA could prompt cells to produce proteins, work that became part of the broader scientific history behind later mRNA technologies – including the Covid-19 vaccine.
During the pandemic, Malone became an outspoken critic of COVID-19 vaccination policies and public health mandates. His appearances on podcasts and other media outlets brought him a large following, while some of his statements about vaccine safety and effectiveness were disputed by public health experts and fact-checkers.
In a widely discussed December 2021 appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, Malone invoked the term “mass formation psychosis” to describe what he viewed as public responses to
In June 2025, Malone was appointed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. His service ended after a federal court ruling suspended the committee appointments in litigation over the panel’s composition.
Food, health and self-reliance
In Homesteading for Health, Malone and his wife connect their practical farming experience with a broader critique of modern food production and nutritional policy. They advocate greater household control over food choices and production, and discuss soil health, livestock management, food preservation and the economics of small farms.
Those arguments place the book within a broader debate over food systems, nutrition, agricultural sustainability and the role of individual households in producing food.
For Vermont listeners, today’s Chronicle Conversations offers an opportunity to consider how those ideas translate to a state where agriculture remains central to the landscape and rural economy, but where land costs, weather and the financial demands of farming can complicate efforts to become more self-sufficient.