Small Farm Republic

From farmer, lawyer, and political activist John Klar comes a bold, solutions-based plan for Conservatives that gets beyond the fatuous pipe dreams and social-justice platitudes of the dominant, Liberal "Green" agenda offering a healthy way forward for everyone.

While many on the Left have taken up the mantle of creating a "green" future through climate alarmism, spurious new energy sources, and technocratic control, many on the Right continue to deny imminent environmental threats while pushing for unbridled deregulation of our most destructive industrial forces. Neither approach promises a bright future.

In a time of soil degradation, runaway pollution, food insecurity, and declining human health, the stakes couldn't be higher, and yet the dominant political voices too often overlook the last best hope for our planet supporting small, regenerative farmers. In fact, politicians on all sides continue to sell out the interests of small farmers to the devastating power of Big Ag and failed "renewable energy" incentives.

It's time for a new vision. It's time for bold new agriculture policies that restore both ecosystems and rural communities.

In Small Farm Republic, John Klar, an agrarian conservative in the mold of Wendell Berry and Joel Salatin, offers an alternative that puts small farmers, regenerative agriculture, and personal liberty at the center of an environmental revival--a message that everyone on the political spectrum needs to hear.

About the Authors

John Klar is seventh-generation Vermonter who lives in Brookfield, where he raises grass-fed lamb and beef. Before that, he worked as an attorney. He's also staged campaigns for governor and state senate. Supporting Vermont's local farms and local food production was the cornerstone of his political career. These ideas were codified into his 2020 Vermont Farming Manifesto. In 2006, he self-published a 600-page book called Christian Words, Un-Christian Actions: George W. Bush and the Desecration of Christianity in Modern America. He wrote a weekly column for the Newport Daily Express for about five years, then began writing for American Thinker, The Federalist, Human Events, American Spectator, Mother Earth News and True North Reports.

Joel Salatin and his family own and operate Polyface Farm in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. The farm produces pastured beef, pork, chicken, eggs, turkeys, rabbits, lamb and ducks, servicing roughly 6,000 families and 50 restaurants in the farm's bioregion. He has written 14 books to date, is editor of Stockman Grass Farmer Magazine, and lectures around the world on land healing and local food systems. Polyface Farm operates a formal apprenticeship program and conducts many educational workshops and events.