Episode Details

We sit down with Geoff Wacker Ohio poultry farmer, Zero Fox Farms, and author of Agricultural Agorism: From Soil to Sovereignty for an unscripted pass at the oldest market in the world: dirt, chickens, handshakes, and the people who still trade without asking permission.

Geoff puts a name on what homesteaders already do. Agorism is the action of the free market. Black and gray when the white market is rigged. Then he walks it into the field: corn and soy lock in, subsidy paychecks that buy less every year, nectarine contracts that tell a grower to destroy the crop, and the new tractor economy where cameras, licensed parts, and a $19.95 “air conditioning” subscription mean you never actually owned the machine. If they can shut it off, it is not yours.

The road gets muddy in the best way. Lost turkeys. Cornish crosses that hit the cone in five weeks. Red Rangers that wait a week. 36 pound bronze mammoths that will not fit in an oven. Amish neighbors who ship a mailbox with the bill inside. Water-glassed eggs on the counter for a year. Six chickens behind vinyl fence on a Florida quarter acre. A five-gallon bucket of Chadwick cherries. Crypto wallets for people who still think Zano is a neighbor’s dog. Sovereignty, Geoff says, is something you can put your hands in.

Key Takeaways

• Agorism is free market action, not a costume. Most people already do it when they trade eggs, starts, or labor and never file the paperwork.
• The book is aimed at homesteaders, market farmers, and fence sitters microgreens on a windowsill count.
• Big Ag is stuck in subsidized corn-soy rotations and long contracts; small plots and direct trade are the exit ramp.
• Subscription tractors, cameras, and licensed parts are the same creep as ice maker refrigerators. Counter economics answers with old iron and new mechanical builds.
• Amish networks are a working agora: high trust, labor-for-labor, wells without permits, trade that crosses state lines.
• Start stupid small. Six hens. Extra tomato starts. A worm bin. One bucket of cherries. Action beats the keyboard.

Chapters

00:00 — Welcome, Havok, LX, and Geoff

00:43 — What is agorism, in dirt language

03:36 — Why farmers cling to corn-soy and subsidies

07:47 — Peel off 5–20 acres and grow something you can sell yourself

09:17 — The nectarine field they were told to destroy

10:28 — Developers waving cash at tired farmers

12:38 — Subscription tractors, cameras, and the $19.95 A/C fee

16:14 — Old iron vs GPS on 70 acres

18:01 — Homestead barter: chicken for rabbits, Afghan for pottery

21:28 — Sovereignty you can hold

21:54 — The year the turkeys all died

25:17 — Cornish cross vs Red Rangers

28:14 — 36-pound mammoths and the closed processors

30:19 — Amish rows, horse teams, and high-trust trade

35:58 — Favorite parts of the book: scenarios you can run tomorrow

38:18 — Crypto wallets for small ag

39:11 — Who the book is for

42:14 — Six legal hens and Robert Heinlein

44:18 — Store chicken vs bird you raised

46:29 — Manure, worms in Florida sand, and a zero fertilizer bill

49:23 — Zero Fox Farms, Ohio, 2027 education plans

52:30 — Starts, worm bins, and overlooked market goods

53:56 — The five-gallon-bucket cherry tomato sermon

57:59 — Why backyard eggs beat the math

1:01:34 — Water glassing 101

1:03:26 — Warm eggs, unwashed tomatoes, and squeamish neighbors

1:06:18 — Mushrooms, Paul Stamets, and a morel slurry

1:12:00 — Grab the book

1:12:25 — Shoutout to Myra

1:14:22 — Amazon, @GeoffWacker, Farming Without Permission

1:15:44 — Where to find Space Tomatoes

Find Geoff: