Thrills and Enchantments with Small Farmer's Journal Founder Lynn R. Miller

Lynn R. Miller is a painter, farmer, horseman, and writer. Odd jobs ranging from commercial fisherman, logger, sawyer, farmer, workhorse teamster, lecturer, and cattle rancher, supported him through college. Over the past 40 years, Lynn has become a world-renowned authority in the fields of alternative farming and animal powered agriculture. 

In 1976, with the encouragement of his father to “grow a crop of literature” to assist the fledgling small farmer, he founded the Small Farmer’s Journal, an international agrarian quarterly which functions to this day as a cornerstone empowering a worldwide readership. For Small Farmer's Journal's  entire 48 year history Lynn has manually stewarded this living alternative preservationist publication, now in it’s 188th edition. 

We learn of Lynn’s early enchantment with painting, followed by a self-described “genetic memory”, leading him to follow a manual transmission life integrating his passions rooted in “shared work”, and restorative land cultivation. 

Mr. Miller is author to over twenty books (poetry, fiction, and nonfiction), including the best-selling, Workhorse Handbook, now in its second edition, and his current release Roots in a Lovely Filth, He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Ranch and Reata, and Western Horseman.

 Lynn has lectured across North America and keynote speaker for farm conferences, and universities. He was awarded the Steward of Sustainable Agriculture, at the 1999 Eco Farm Conference, The Garfield Award for The Preservation of Rural Technologies, Award for Distinguished Service from the Missouri House of Representatives, and the Utne Reader Award for Environmental Reporting. 

His artworks are in private and public collections across the country. It’s my pleasure, privilege, and honor to welcome my friend Lynn R. Miller to this episode of Intrinsic Drive®.

Intrinsic Drive® is produced by Ellen Strickler and Phil Wharton and Andrew Hollingworth  is sound editor and engineer.

Photo Credit: Kristi Gilman-Miller