by John Klar
This newsletter is largely devoted to farming and food issues, though I do deviate regularly into other areas of policy. Many of the issues I address here stem from my book, Small Farm Republic, and from related developments in the world since its publication. I here report on the book’s status.
My book is unique because it advocates a bipartisan ecological/agricultural response from a partisan perspective. That is, I argue conservatives should lead on the environment by focusing on toxic chemicals rather than carbon dioxide, and supporting small farms and improved agricultural policies rather than more manufacturing of so-called “renewables” that are not what they are billed as and generally do more to enhance a few deep pockets than benefit humanity of its environment. Interestingly, Progressive Democrats who already falsely perceive that they “own” the environmental issue do not want conservative competition and would rather deplatform my book than have their boondoggle ideological policies dragged into the light of critical reason.
This excites me: I’m reaching exactly the audience I hoped to target, and they get it even as the Left wishes I would shut up. Consider that no major Vermont media outlet has critiqued the book. If the book were wrong, Seven Days and VTDigger would jump on me like the flies to manure they both are. Instead, they avoid my work like the plague. Let’s assess what that means.
That means that the Progressive Vermont media would rather sideline my effort solely because it is conservative than fairly assess the issues researched and presented. I advocate in my book to: increase local, fresh, non-GMO food sourcing for public schools; phase out wasteful subsidies for destructive monoculture crops like corn, soy, and wheat; relax regulatory burdens on small farms; implement tax and other credit, or low-interest loans or grants, for entrepreneurs and young people embarking on local agricultural ventures; increasing research into glyphosate, atrazine, and other dangerous but understudied chemicals; persuade more conservatives to embrace local and organic food and agriculture; increasing food security against looming inflationary, monetary, infrastructure, and international instabilities.
What in that list would liberals at Seven Days oppose? You would think they would embrace an across-the-aisle ally. But that’s not what I am: I’m their across-the-aisle enemy. I advocate for the small-scale and local; they now embrace the federal statism of the Green New Deal. I expose the complete folly of the claim that solar panels save the planet: they accelerate its rapid destruction, as do EVs. But more, these programs to inflict failed polluting technologies on the citizenry are patently and unapologetically regressive, impoverishing many so a few can make a buck, and others can falsely dream they have done something beneficial.
But perhaps the most essential issue of my book is also being sidelined: food security. America faces famine and runaway food inflation: Progressives perceive that they can hold the forces of the world at bay with their canned Utopia baloney. Will their dogma keep farmers viable, foods processed cleanly, and supply lines humming?
Not at all. Turning food into a social justice weapon, they are enthralled with “black farming reparations” and “food security for such-and-such-a-skin-color.” This is counterproductive, by stupidity if not by design. Food insecurityfor all is at our doorstep and requires foresight and intervention to forestall or blunt it.
My book is selling very well, and I continue to be invited to interviews (and reinvited back) to discuss cows, farming, food inflation, and why local control of food is better than global control. The book has stayed consistently at #1 on Amazon in the Food and Agriculture category and has received many positive reviews.
How about you? Have you read Small Farm Republic? The book took me two years to write, after reading nearly 100 relevant books. I tried to collect all the most essential facts in one place, to equip readers to become more aware of where their food comes from and to become alert to the lies about cows and farming employed by so-called climate warriors to deceive and enslave us all. The readers’ responses tell me I have succeeded: this book is a warning about the future: the great fear should not be of global warming, domestic terrorists, gun violence, or an attack on Taiwan. The great and logical fear should be that the folly of decades of treating farmers, food, and soil like they were worthless and expendable will now carry profound and dire consequences. China will not rescue America from famine, and Bill Gates’ fake meat is poison.
If you have read Small Farm Republic, please share your impressions at the Amazon reviews link. Please loan it or recommend it to a friend. Please share a pic of the book with an endorsement on Facebook or other social media. Supporting this book supports all small farmers and local food production!
If you haven’t purchased the book, I invite you to read the testimonies of those who have and consider having a gander. One need not be a farmer to be a stakeholder in the reliable supply of healthy food that does not destroy the ecosystem. We all must eat.
The author is a Brookfield best-selling author, lawyer, farmer and pastor. Reprinted from the Small Farm Republic website.
Categories: Book Review, Commentary
I’m reading Small Farm Republic now. It is very insightful work and much needed addition to the national conversation.
I purchased the audio version this morning. Now if I can just get my nook to play it, I would be dandy.
As far as the Left is concerned, in my humble opinion, for the most part, they are beyond the pale. I declined to spend my time reasoning, conversing, interacting with them any longer. My energy is precious, my time even more so. I will not cast my pearls before swine. I will spend my energy on actually making a difference as best I am able to maintain and encourage conservative, family and liberty minded values. Thank you Mr. Klar. Hope you run for office again.
I happen to agree with all the points and purpose of the book and would like to read it. However, if it is written with the same self-righteous, finger-pointing, nyaah-nyaah voice as this article, I’ll save myself a few bucks. This line, for instance — “If the book were wrong, Seven Days and VTDigger would jump on me like the flies to manure they both are.” — would communicate its message just fine without the insult added after “jump on me.” This not only makes the author sound childish but also undermines the seriousness of the matter and probably repels people who would otherwise be attracted to the book and act on its content.
Some people should just stay uninformed so some sentence or thought won’t trigger them. Just like those evil text by Trump that drive people nuts even though he usually hits the mark. None are so blind as those who refuse to see. I don’t want those easily triggered in my sphere when the blank hits the fan, I want people who will question and listen. You are not learning when you are bitching and talking. For many, they prefer to be numb than informed.
John, if you want that attention from the left that you crave, stop whining, start growing food and stop growing strawmen. Zuckerman is more of a farmer than you.
It seems he already has the lefts attention. Two of you here to knock a book you haven’t most likely read. How much food does Zuckerman grow? Asking for a friend.
For starters, Zuckermans actually a farmer, but Dano I come here for the cringe. The absolute disdain that many of you have for your fellow Vermonters here is astounding. I can assure you that there is no one on the left that takes to the media beg for the vitriol and ire of conservatives. Food is an area both sides can find common ground on, but not if one side accuses the other of falsehoods like subsisting on fake meat and Chinese agriculture. If you guys want to be taken seriously, act serious
I have no disdain for my fellow Vermonters who were born and raised here as I was. I have a problem with trust fund invaders like Mr. Zuckerman who have come here to tell us how to live and cram their perverted ideology down our throats. Handing out dirty carrots to children along a parade route does not make one a farmer. It was conservatives who kept Vermont the way it was for 109 years before the liberal invasion. You probably came from somewhere else also.
SFR is a common sense approach to food security. While I personally would like to see ALL subsidies and unnecessary regulations eliminated in ALL segments of industry and commerce, I understand the need to wean the grifters from the government teat, especially the energy sector. Agriculture is not as robust as supermarket shelves might indicate. The plannedemic revealed many sparse anb empty spaces within a short period of time and has since set us on the current inflationary trajectory.
The critical commenters simply reveal themselves as political hitmen with no valuable insights or suggestions on the book, which they clearly have not read. They dealt plenty of their own snark and whining in the process of attributing it to John. After years of deplorable treatment by the woke community, some of us are feeling like more than a little snark is called for against the tyrannical leftists who seek to impose their gender bending, child grooming, hateful racism and criminal violence just because we don’t agree with them and don’t want our children around that kind of influence, which is now “systemic” in our schools and other institutions.
What I’ve heard from those who have had business with Zuckerman, a farmer he is not, much like a real job or (God forbid) manual labor is to Bernie Sanders. How’s that for snark.
Perfectly stated, they come here for the cringe because all their beloved liberal sites don’t allow comments or criticism, only censorship. Zuckerman is a farmer, E I E I O, and on his farm he has a trust fund, E I E I O.
Well said, Grandmadder!
A “Book Review” written by the author of the book. As if we needed anything else to demonstrate that this page is a rag.
Also, “#1 in an obscure category on Amazon” is not the flex you think it is.