24 Comments
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nancy roberts's avatar

I personally will never understand why farmers are not the highest paid people on the planet. Instead, we "value" entertainment above basic needs.

I always like to chat with the cashiers at the grocery store and upon buying liver, which she thought was gross, was actually stunned to find out where hamburger came from! Truth. I thought she was kidding, but in fact she is the product of our education system. I will admit leaving there feeling that this country is in big trouble if we have naive people, maybe no fault of her own, as the next generation of thinkers and leaders who actually prefer the artificial, in many aspects, to the real. Just my thoughts.

John Day MD's avatar

People who profit from financial transactions are the highest paid people on the planet, and they put themselves between farmers and people who eat food.

The money is in Intermediation, not production or consumption.

;-(

Eli's avatar

Yes -- highest paid and most respected. Wrote about this very thing this week on aboutthefarm.substack.com.

Beth C Coddiwompler's avatar

In addition to buying the book, please request these types of books at your local library. I've done this for truth-telling books the past 5 years and my library is very good about getting them — and when they arrive, a waiting list usually forms! It's a great way to spread truth and enlighten communities.

Note that John Klar has two books out this year:

Welcome to the Revolution: The Ongoing Story of the Bipartisan Alliance to Make America Healthy Again

and

The Coming Food Crisis: How Corporations, Activists, and Climate Alarmists Are Waging War on Farmers

You can get ISBN codes and publisher info from the Amazon listings for your library requests.

Sonia Nordenson's avatar

Excellent suggestion, Beth.

Jen's avatar

Great idea Beth.

Polly Frost's avatar

Great work, John. Just bought my copy from Amazon.

Valerie Grimes's avatar

Just ordered my copy of the book.

Ms Smith's avatar

I agree that we have a food crisis. However, I thank the God of heaven for creating all our food and animals.

Roger Hall's avatar

Unfortunately many family farmers have bought into big AG and farm just like big AG with chemicals and grain fed animals.

Lynn Mathias's avatar

Love the message, not sure about the presentation. I have been told by a friend who grew up in Illinois that I, a native of NYC, have a romantic notion of farming. She used to work for the Dept. of Agriculture, in DC, doling out loans and grants, while a cousin wrung corn and soybeans for her on the family farm in the Midwest; she approaches farming as people in NYC approach fashion, not as a high calling but as a way to make money, as much as possible, as quickly and easiily as possible. So I'm not impressed by Iroquois prayers to corn gods anymore; if the main God isn't going to help feed the people, I'm not betting on subsidiaries. This Wordsworthian approach to agriculture strikes me, however, as a balanced reaction to the alternative, which is to view those who put food in our mouths as ignorant peasants, the lowest level of society, subject to the worst abuse from their "betters" (read any decent English novel before Thomas Hardy). The modern equivalent, in the USA, is the scorn that, among a certain group of women now, approaches hatred of the rural, of John Deere caps, pickup trucks, the smell of manure, country music, and, most of all, the "uneducated" MAGA people enjoying these things. Can't we take emotion out of these discussions entirely and simply present facts? The agricultural industry will soon be as concentrated as the automobile industry was and we see the results of that, our land will be owned by foreigners, the technology that has given us general obesity, ubiquitous auto-immunity diseases and cancer spikes will be ramped up to drag more calories from the soil, and we Americans will have lost yet more control over our destiny. The real lesson we should learn from the Iroquois is: When foreigners come for your land, beat the crap out of them.

Sonia Nordenson's avatar

Love the message, Lynn. Not sure about the presentation. There's only one "main God," and that Being (called by whatever name anyone uses to identify our Creator) is the God to whom the Iroquois are speaking. In your fear-and-anger-tinged statement, you have not taken emotion out of the discussion. We're past the days (I hope) of beating the crap out of foreigners, but we do have other (more prudent and effective) ways to respond. I share your feelings to a great extent, but I question the value of black-pilling vs John Klar's approach. I'm about to buy his book.

Lynn Mathias's avatar

I got a little ruffled when I first read this (part simply because you disagreed and part because you mischaracterized some of my points), but in the middle of the night I realized that I had received a well-considered, grammatical response that showed someone had thought about what I'd written. Groovy. So I will be less sensitive in the future, particularly since it's obvious I cannot abide sensitivity in ecconomic/political arguments. BTW, Sonia, you really did misunderstand the closing remark about foreigners; are you from Minnesota, perhaps? This discussion has nothing to do with aliens, legal or otherwise; it was about foreigners sitting in China, Switzerland, Swaziland, or wherever, with no interest whatever in the health of Americans, scooping up farmland as an investment; sometimes they farm, sometimes they just speculate because if AI has made you rich, you need to put your money somewhere. I stand by my comment that if you have the power to prevent danger and injustice, you need to use it, particularly defensively.

Sonia Nordenson's avatar

And I agree. Thank you, Lynn. No, despite the Swedish name I'm not from Minnesota. I'm FROM California, currently in New Mexico, and soon to live in Florida. I wish I lived near YOU, wherever that is, as I like you. Blessings!

John Day MD's avatar

"Call Any Vegetable", with Zappa shout out to Rutabaga at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9ef4K0sfDk

Sweet Angel Cecelia's avatar

We would love for John to be a guest speaker on our podcast "Make 100 Health Club". We raise money to help a local organic farmer. Can I have his email address so we can reach out? We live in Northern Arizona 90 miles north of Phoenix. https://cast11.com/living-a-good-life-lifestyle-podcast-2/

Fred Kittelmann's avatar

Oh those "corporations that put profits before health" - the article implies they are a big part of the problem. I wouldn't say that's false, but we need to realize that they are functioning as intended. The way the economy, law, society, incentives... are structured - what else would you expect? This is a world where we misinterpret Adam Smith in order to believe good things will result when everyone acts selfishly. They will not. A group of people putting health before profits - I don't know what to call that, but I wouldn't use the word corporation. Making America healthy again will require digger deeper than most of us would've thought. Maybe that's more work. I don't know. But it would solve more problems than just health.

Marc's avatar
Apr 1Edited

I partly hope sales are good for this book. I say partly because I don't agree with part of the title that refers to "climate alarmism" . There is no "alarm", there is sober scientific proof for climate change. So I personally will not be buying it, nor will I ask my library to buy it ( they don't buy any vax skeptics books deliberately, or anything like this ,anyways, so... ).

Sonia Nordenson's avatar

I see that the book's title was only recently decided upon. Would it be The Coming Food Crisis: How Corporations, Activists, and Climate Alarmists Are Waging War on Farmers? Or The War on Farmers: How Corporations, Activists, and Climate Alarmists Are Fueling a Global Food Crisis. The first title is the one now available on Amazon.

Tee Rigodanzo's avatar

Good question, Sonia. You are correct that the first title - also title of this substack post - is correct. The other book is Pre-Order for June 30th . . . https://www.amazon.com/Cancelled-War-Farmers-Corporations-Activists/dp/1510786309/ref=sr_1_2

Sonia Nordenson's avatar

Isn’t there just one book, though?

Tee Rigodanzo's avatar

You could be right. Amazon lists both with THE COMING FOOD CRISIS available now & THE (CANCELLED) WAR ON FARMERS available June 30th. Maybe you want to ask John Klar directly.