[4] He started a family garden in 1975 which through various land acquisitions he helped developed into the Heritage Farm[5] six miles north of Decorah, Iowa growing nearly 2,000 varieties of vegetables.
[10] By the time of his split with the organization Whealy and then former wife Dianne Ott were credited with helping to create one of the largest nongovernmental seed banks with more than 25,000 varieties.
[17][18] In 2015 Kent Whealy formed his own publishing company (JAK KAW Press, LLC) to ensure that Dan Bussey's extensive research on apples and the appropriate pomological watercolors are recorded for posterity.
Whealy was an outspoken supporter of organic agriculture and the Slow Food movement[19] and critic of pesticides and genetically modified crops calling their use "immoral.
"[20] In 2012, he was listed among the largest financial donors in support of a California ballot initiative campaign to label foods derived from genetically engineered plants and animals.