Small Farm Republic By John Klar

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Small Farm Republic: Why Conservatives Must Embrace Local Agriculture, Reject Climate Alarmism, and Lead an Environmental Revival
By John Klar
Chelsea Green Publishing

To prepare for this book, attorney-farmer-author John Klar and his wife made a “pilgrimage” to meet Wendell Berry. Berry and his wife are lifelong Democrats. It baffled them that a pair of Republicans would feel so strongly about regenerative agriculture. Even after a resonating visit discussing mutual passions, the Berrys were mystified to be doing so with a conservative.

Klar attempts to address the consumer-farmer disconnect. In particular, he is speaking to consumers who think small-scale farming is a losing proposition or that there is nothing they can do to address their dependence on the industrial food conglomerate. He thinks the global warming debate, which has hardened conservatives’ stance about ecological issues, has caused them to be viewed as enemies of environmental health. Local food production, he feels, should be a political prescription that conservatives publicly endorse.

Ecological pioneers such as Berry, Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold offered a very different prescription than the trendy “Green” camp promoting techy solar panels and other “renewables.” To sequester carbon, Klar believes we need look no further than regenerative farms.

The Klars found that there is no better place to prepare their children for life than by living on a regenerative farm. Without his attorney-turned-regenerative-farmer life change, they would never have come to this realization.

In 2019, Klar was approached to run for governor of Vermont. He and other conservative candidates chose “Agripublicans” as their platform. Small Farm Republic captures his policy proposals, “2020 Vermont Farming Manifesto,” as a “political strategy to bring back local agriculture.” Klar acknowledges stifling regulations that “too often compromise rather than enhance human and environmental health.” His objective depiction of both sides of the debate is enlightening because he promotes practical, mediating solutions.

Among the hundreds of noteworthy aphorisms in this book, my favorite is: “The most efficient solar panel is a blade of grass, and no technology will ever improve on that.” He concludes with these wise words: “A local food supply is also the best defense against tyranny.” It was true for the colonists, and it is true for the patriots of today. Trustworthy government should encourage self-reliance and food security, not servitude to corporate hegemony. Two thumbs up.

This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Spring 2025

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