excerpted from a longer history, reprinted from Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, Rutgers University, September 2006

Sir Albert Howard, one of founders of organic farming, and one of the drawings
from his book describing the Indore (a region of India) method of composting

Many people active in organic agriculture today are unaware of the important role played by Sir Albert Howard and others of his generation, including F.H. King, Walter Northbourne, Lady Balfour, J.I. Rodale, and Louis Bromfield, in the development and diffusion of organic farming concepts. The recent rapid growth of the organic movement has resulted in a loss of connection with the historical figures and roots of organic agriculture. Scientists conducting organic farming research, farmers considering organic transition and the general public may benefit from knowing more of this history.

Telling a history of organic farming – as with other great movements, such as alternative medicine – requires exploring the interplay between science, social values, economics, and the recalcitrance of established organizations to adopt new approaches. In tracing the historical trajectory from the genesis of Howard’s major organic concepts and practices (a living connection between soil fertility and plant and animal health, the Law of Return and composting) to the wide-spread adoption of these beliefs and practices, one encounters a series of battles between intellectual and economic stakeholders. Although support for the organic movement has grown with public awareness, opposition to it has never gone away. These issues are reflected in the history of Howard’s contributions to organic farming. The story of this development of organic concepts in the 1930s to their fate as expressed in the current USDA National Organic Program occurred in a series of stages – the development of organic concepts and methods, polarization around them, then their recognition, accommodation, and finally their further extension.
[Read more…] about A Brief History of Organics in the US:

The original goal of the movement for organic farming was care for the soil and the watersheds, for healthy, nourishing foods, and for the many hands that tend the crops. Yet, as organic standards have developed, much of the emphasis has been on growing methods and too often, the farmers and workers who do the work have been left behind. A variety of voluntary ethical and labor justice certifications and programs have been created that can fill that gap. Although their standards, tools and theory of change vary, they share a common goal: safeguarding the people who grow the food.

A Broken Food System
Any examination of ethical and labor justice certifications would be incomplete if it failed to address the massive imbalances of power that exist within the food system. As a reader of The Natural Farmer, we don’t need to tell you that our food system is broken. Here in the U.S., and around the globe, corporate-driven, industrial agriculture is polluting our planet and exploiting people.

Farming has never been a lucrative vocation. Yet increasing corporate consolidation squeezes farmers as fewer and fewer companies control every aspect of our food system. According to the Farm Bureau, “farmers and ranchers in the U.S. receive only 15 cents out of every dollar spent on food. The rest goes for costs beyond the farm gate: wages and materials for production, processing, transportation, distribution, and marketing.” That’s less than half what it was in 1980.
[Read more…] about The Role of Fair Trade and Fair Labor Labels in the Movement for Food Justice

The Path to Regenerative
The path to regenerative organic agriculture started over seven decades ago. In 1942, J.I. Rodale wrote a few simple words on a black board: “HEALTHY SOIL=HEALTHY FOOD=HEALTHY PEOPLE.” In so doing, he set us on a path that links our personal health to the health of the soil, dictating that the way we farm does make a difference in human health and the health of the planet.

In the later 20th century, as the organic community tried to create interstate and international trade in organic food and fiber materials, it became clear that a national standard was needed. Such a standard could unify the many voices in the organic community; help grow the numbers of organic farms and products; and communicate to consumers through a forward-facing USDA logo representing the certification process and the standards themselves.
[Read more…] about Raising the Bar: Regenerative Organic Certification

Youth cleaning beans at Pie Ranch

Food Justice Certification is still in the early adopter stage. The entities that certify are highly ethical farmers and food businesses that want to bring the public’s attention to the possibility that farmers could be paid fair prices and farmers can provide safe, respectful jobs with living wages to farm workers. Green-Star, an outstanding food co-op in Ithaca, NY, engages in FJC both to demonstrate that it has good labor policies and also that it is paying fair prices to the local farms that supply the store. Brandon Kane, General Manager of GreenStar, says that FJC expresses the values of co-op members. In a letter to other NE co-ops, Kane wrote: “Food Justice Certification through the Agricultural Justice Project has become a critical component of GreenStar Co-op telling its values story and backing it up with hard facts.” AJP and NOFA are partnering on a project that will assist organic farms in improving the labor policies and engage food co-ops in the region in more joint promotion with farms on shared values.

Despite national consumer surveys by Consumer Reports showing that significant percentages of those surveyed highly value food grown with good labor policies (86% in 2014, 89% in 2016), there are few markets that offer premiums for food grown by happy workers. International fair trade has been able to convey the message that small farms in developing countries deserve a fair price to survive, though most programs do not include improving conditions for workers on these farms. The message that US farmers need fair pricing surfaces only during periods of more severe crisis, like the late 70’s and again recently, for dairy farms.
[Read more…] about Food Justice Certification – More than Just an Add-On to Organic

photo courtesy Liz Henderson
Presentation of the Chinese PGS at the Urgenci conference in 2015.

Whether or not the third party organic certification system presided over by the National Organic Program loses integrity utterly, our movement for organic food and farming needs a Plan B. At the NOFA Summer Conference in my contribution to the discussion of the future of organic (https://foodfirst.org/publication/organic-food-where-do-we-go-from-here/), I suggested that we look to Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) for inspiration. This article is a quick introduction to PGS with resources for those who would like to learn more.

Since the 2004 joint IFOAM-MAELA Alternative Certification Workshop that I attended in Brazil when IFOAM launched its campaign to define and support PGS, IFOAM has been encouraging the development of these systems as a way to provide an organic guarantee for small scale farms (smallholders) that cannot afford third party certification and to build local markets. (MAELA is the Movement for Agroecological Agriculture of Latin America and the Caribbean, a coalition that is deeply committed to building local markets for organic foods, as opposed to export markets.) IFOAM established a PGS Working Group with representatives from around the world. Ron Khosla, founder of Certified Naturally Grown (CNG), was the first NA representative, and Alice Varon, current Director of CNG, took over from him. This is the definition of PGS from the PGS Working Group: “Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are locally focused quality assurance systems. They certify producers based on active participation of stakeholders and are built on a foundation of trust, social networks and knowledge exchange.”
[Read more…] about Participatory Guarantee Systems –

photo by Jack Kittredge
Amy and Paul pose by the bulk tank where all the milk is collected and chilled before processing. Amy is very happy with the labor-saving bottle washer (to the right of Paul) that handles 20 bottles at a time in a 5 minute cycle.

The hill towns of western Massachusetts separate the Pioneer Valley on their east from the Berkshire Mountains on their west. Having neither the agricultural soils and climate of the valley, nor the majestic scenic appeal of the mountains, the hill towns are sparsely populated throughout the year. With an elevation of 1750 feet, compared to some of the Berkshire towns at over 2000 feet, and a density of less than 11 people per square mile, ranking it 348th out of the 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth, Hawley is a typical hill town.

It had the distinction for a number of years, however, of being the site of the largest certified organic farm in the state. The sixth of nine children and a pioneer in the organic movement, Ivy Donovan took over his father’s 800 acre Hawley potato farm in 1987, had it certified organic, and produced spuds for Whole Foods as well as other retailers in the Northeast. For a few years he and his wife Cinni even made and marketed organic potato chips. In 2012, however, they retired and sold the farm to Amy Klippenstein and Paul Lacinski who had been looking for a site for a dairy farm. Ivy died of throat cancer in 2017
[Read more…] about Sidehill Farm: a Real Organic One!

photo credit Brian Lasenby
A gluttonous eastern chipmunk.

While on an afternoon hike last fall, I sat down at the base of a large tree to take in what might be going unnoticed. Within seconds, a chipmunk appeared from behind a pile of large rocks. Based on its behavior, I suspected this chipmunk had had the good fortune of a past encounter with a hiker willing to share a snack. When it realized that I had nothing to offer, the chipmunk turned and began searching the area. It quickly stopped and began digging. Lucky guy, I thought, assuming that the chipmunk had located a cached acorn buried by a hard-working gray squirrel. It came as a surprise, then, when in less than a minute, the chipmunk unearthed an acorn sized truffle!
Most of us have heard of truffles, though we often associate them with fancy European restaurants; black and white truffles, in particular, are prized ingredients. But truffles exist here, as well, and while our Northeastern chipmunks probably don’t have gourmet tastes, they’re certainly gourmand in their taste for truffles.

[Read more…] about Chipmunks and Truffles: A Recipe for a Healthy Forest