Joel Salatin, a global hero of the sustainable small-scale farming movement, does not accept the well-established science linking greenhouse gas emissions to dangerous climate change, DeSmog has found.

The Virginia farmer and self-described “Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic” has told DeSmog he is skeptical because he “grew up inundated with the science that by now, we would enter a new ice age.”

Climate scientists have told DeSmog that Salatin had apparently accepted several “standard denier talking points,” including the 1970s cooling myth.

In late June, Salatin gave a keynote speech at the “Red Pill Expo” where other presenters pushed conspiracy theories about the 9/11 terrorist attacks and claimed human-caused climate change was largely a hoax.

Hero Figure

Salatin has written several books and been featured in Time magazine. His livestock farm, Polyface Farm, has been featured in a number of documentary films. He is a widely sought speaker.

One senior figure in the sustainable food movement in Australia, where Salatin has toured many times, says while Salatin enjoys “hero” status for his revolutionary farming methods, his position on climate change will be “surprising and disappointing” to many of his supporters.

Climate Denial Myths

DeSmog contacted Salatin after his appearance at the Red Pill Expo — an event organized by a group fronted by notorious conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin who has claimed there is “no such thing” as HIV and that airplane contrails might be a political plot to spray chemicals onto the world’s population.

Salatin said: “On climate change, I grew up inundated with the science that by now, we would enter a new ice age. Now we’re going to burn up. I don’t believe either and I don’t think we know enough. Science is limited to what we can observe and what we can duplicate; much of this is outside the realm of science.” 

“That we’re in a warming trend is certainly evident, but remember, Greenland was once named that because it was a pastoral, hospitable place to live. Not now,” Salatin said. “We’ve been warmer and have also had far more carbon in the atmosphere.”

None of the world’s major scientific academies would agree with Salatin. His notion that scientists in the 1970s were mainly concerned about global cooling is an oft-repeated myth.