Not all gardeners are no impact gardeners. Organic gardeners do their best to leave a positive impact on the environment. There are many ways of working toward leaving no impact. Here are just a few green gardening suggestions. Try to think of your own ways to leave no impact in the garden as well.

Natural pesticides
Organic gardeners are sure to use nature friendly pesticides that leave no impact on our water supply. This step will also protect beneficial insects such as honey bees and lady bugs.

Barrier pest control
Another good organic gardening technique that leaves no impact on the environment is the use of barriers to protect plants from pests. The barrier method keeps birds and small animals from eating garden produce without causing them harm.

Compost
Using homemade compost as fertilizer keeps harmful chemicals out of the soil. Many commercial fertilizers contain chemicals which leach into the soil and water supply. Leave no impact by making your own compost fertilizer from trimmings, leaves and kitchen scraps.

Reduce waste
All the kitchen vegetable scraps, leaves, twigs and clipping are used for compost. This means a reduction in the household waste and a further step toward a no impact lifestyle. Making your own compost can be quite simple.

Donate food
No impact organic gardeners don’t waste food. Garden surplus is sold or given to friends, neighbors and relatives. Local food banks gladly accept any unwanted garden produce. Think about canning and freezing garden produce as well. Cut down on the grocery bill and consume less goods.

Recycle pots
Greenhouses will accept plastic disposable pots for re-use. Another option for no impact organic gardening is to use them yourself. Even broken clay pots can be used again. Just put the broken pieces in the bottom of pots in place of gravel for drainage.

Recycle soil
Don’t throw away potting soil at the end of the year. Mix it with fertilizer or throw it into the compost pile for further use. No impact organic gardening means using everything to its fullest potential.

Save seeds
Organic gardeners don’t buy seeds every year. Work toward a no impact garden by saving plant seeds from this years vegetable, herb and flower crops. The seeds can be used by you next year or shared with other gardening friends.

Hand tools
Hand tools leave no impact on the environment. They don’t necessitate fuel purchases or energy use. Save money by using hand tools as a no impact gardening method. It’s also a great way to get a little gardening workout and reap health benefits too.

Related posts:

1. Why biodynamic gardening makes sense
2. Grow your own food — in a bag, in a truck, anywhere
3. How to create a drought-friendly garden

In Chicago, where green-roof culture has gone from a fad to a standard, a restaurant roof on Chicago’s north side has acquired the nation’s first designation, by the Midwest Organic Services Association (M.O.S.A.), as an organic rooftop farm.

It started as a passion for sustainability on the part of Uncommon Ground restaurateurs Helen and Michael Cameron, who for 17 years built enduring relationships with regional organic farmers, and then – when scouting a new location for their restaurant in 2007 – decided to try organic farming themselves.

Their 2,500-square-foot rooftop farm, thirty feet above the pavement at 1401 W. Devon Ave., is ably managed by Farm Director Natalie Pfister, a graduate of Chicago’s Art Institute, where she obtained a degree in sculpture.

The career change, from art to farming, is not as big a leap as one might imagine, according to Pfister.

“In fact, they’re pretty darn close, in terms of creativity. I’m faced with problems every day in relation to the farm, and the solutions I devise require a kind of creativity that bridges very nicely.”

In addition to the rooftop farm, Uncommon Ground also has a roughly 400 square-foot, street-level garden and a parking lot where, on Fridays, a farmer’s market features eggs, produce and fruit from an organic farm in Wisconsin, certified organic lamb from Illinois-based Mint Creek Farms, and organic berries from pick-your-own Kismet Farm in southwestern Michigan. Oh, and did we mention the live entertainment, local artist’s displays, or the beer tastings?

Uncommon Ground sponsors the farmer’s market, but doesn’t sell its own produce. That is reserved for restaurant use, including not only the 17 varieties of tomato grown for summer menus, but the peas, beans, cantaloupe, watermelon, herbs and edible flowers used to garnish drinks, hors d’oeuvres and entrées.
In winter, expect to find hearty, wholesome menu items like pumpkin soup or potatoes au gratin, because Uncommon Ground, in keeping with its philosophy of sustainable food, doesn’t serve vegetables out of season. When a specific item is needed, but not available from the rooftop organic garden (which has no greenhouse yet), it is purchased from local organic farms, or the Green City Farmer’s Market, Chicago’s only year-round market promoting locally-grown produce.

This farm-to-table mentality extends beyond the restaurant, into partnerships with city schools, whose students tour the organic rooftop garden, learn about sustainable urban agriculture and – after getting their hands dirty planting a few vegetables – suddenly understand that mangoes, in Chicago, in winter, is not a sustainable food practice.

Some of the students, inspired by Pfister’s passion, may go back and create their own mini-gardens, on rooftops or balconies or even fire escapes.

“We promote the idea that everyone should be growing their own food, and that it’s possible even in the city.”

In another measure aimed to support that sustainability, Uncommon Ground uses heirloom seeds. These seeds, from varieties that have been in continuous cultivation for over 100 years, are in danger of becoming extinct as hybridization and genetically modified organisms increasingly dominate agriculture. Their loss, should it ever occur, would result in a limited and potentially devastating loss of biodiversity for food crops – a loss of diversity that already threatens to overwhelm banana culture worldwide.

Pfister, who acquired much of her horticultural experience from her mother, Ginny Thomsen – who farmed their Colorado property extensively – also did a lot of educational outreach in college, as well as volunteering on organic farms and working in sustainable restaurants.

“I have a really deep love of food.” Pfister admits, laughing – a love demonstrated in her almost painstaking care of, and familiarity with, the Uncommon Ground organic rooftop farm.

It’s more than a full-time job; Pfister also cares for four rooftop hives of honeybees, along with owner Helen. Fortunately, she has about seven interns, mostly from Chicago’s world-famous Loyola University.

Sustainability also extends beyond food production into the restaurant itself, where custom-built benches, created by local craftsman from reharvested wood (i.e., wood salvaged from old buildings and furnishings), offer customer seating. The rooftop garden also uses five solar panels that heat almost 70 percent of the water used in the restaurant, and recycles water from rooftop cultivation through drain pipes and into rain barrels around the building’s perimeter. However, the organic designation prohibits using water from the restaurant operations themselves.

The organic rooftop garden, made possible by a $100,000 investment and heavy-duty steel beams sunk five feet below basement level – the first step in the process – is, according to Pfister, a work-in-progress.

“Because it’s so unique, there is very little information we can go on. We’re trying to create more enthusiasm among urban agriculturalists, so that we can, eventually, learn from one another.”

Accordingly, once a month, Uncommon Ground holds an “eco-mixer” sponsored by the restaurant and local green organizations to promote a community of like-minded individuals through networking and support.

It’s an uncommon concept, but one that is catching on around the nation (and particularly in places like unemployment-plagued Detroit, cash-strapped California, and North Carolina.) Of course, most of these gardens are at ground level, but rooftops are just as good – if not better, in terms of sunlight – for growing food.

“What we all need to remember is that Chicago is part of the Great Plains, one of the most fertile and productive areas in the nation, in terms of food. When we built Chicago, all we did was raise the plains.”

Customers notice the fresh-picked flavor of the vegetables and herbs immediately, especially with items like arugula, which goes limp and tasteless after a week of transit and a few days on grocer’s shelves. Tomatoes are another taste sensation, according to Pfister.

Chicago, with its roughly 4,000 green roofs, leads the nation in upward greening, and Uncommon Ground clearly leads in making that green bounty edible.

Uncommon Ground has so far won Chicago Magazine’s 2008 award as Best New Restaurant; Time Out Chicago’s 2008 award as Best New Breakfast Spot; the U.S. Green Building Council’s 2009 Enviromotion award; and the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce’s 2009 Green Business of the Year award. So, yes, I think I can safely say that Uncommon Ground is really and truly “green” in every sense of the word.

Related posts:

1. Organic movement sprouts new crop of farmers
2. Farm gives hope to UK flora and fauna
3. In India, Bucking The ‘Revolution’ By Going Organic

In the Valley and across the country, there is a new force in agriculture: environmentally minded young farmers.

Some are urbanites cultivating small fields. Others grew up on farms and are returning home. And among college students or recent graduates who are passionate about food, interning on a farm is a rite of passage.

John Teixeira, a Firebaugh farmer who maintains an organic ranch for interns, says he has received more than 50 inquiries this year. “We’ve had tremendous interest,” he says. “They want to grow their own food. That’s the craze.”

Questions about food production lead these youngsters to the fields. Some read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” author Michael Pollan’s critique of industrial agriculture. They buy food from small farms, both to support local businesses and preserve farmland. They’re concerned about chemicals in their diets.

And they’re recruiting more farmers. In December, 170 young farmers from around the country attended a conference at the Stone Barns Center For Food & Agriculture in New York — far more than expected, organizers say. They’re even documenting their movement in “The Greenhorns,” an upcoming film.

The trend helps offset a problem in agriculture: the aging of the nation’s farmers. According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average age of all farmers is 57, up from 55 in 2002.

Young farmers such as Nikiko Masumoto, 23, exemplify the trend.

“By going to U.C. Berkeley, I was able to look at what my family has done through different perspectives,” says Masumoto, the daughter of Del Rey author and organic peach-and-raisin farmer David Mas Masumoto. “Those perspectives allowed me to realize that I could practice my passions for social justice and environmental sustainability through our farm.”

Her peers have similar interests. “It’s just hilarious, all of these friends deciding to work on organic farms,” she says. “It’s like their domestic Peace Corp experience.”

Not all young farmers distrust conventional agriculture. In the central San Joaquin Valley, the nation’s capital of food production, it’s common for children to follow in the footsteps of their farmer parents.

“It’s almost expected,” says Michelle Shackelford of Robert Johnson Farms, a 450-acre conventional farm in Madera that grows raisins and table grapes.

After working in San Francisco as a Goldman Sachs analyst and a buyer at Williams-Sonoma corporate headquarters, Shackelford returned home about five years ago.

The reason was simple: “I think what my family does is a very noble business and I wanted to keep that going,” says Shackelford, now 33.

In the world of agriculture, so-called greenhorns still are a niche movement, says Dave Goorahoo, a Fresno State soil scientist who sits on the transitional steering council of the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association. But they help fill consumer demand for sustainable and organic food, which “are the fastest growing trends in agriculture right now,” he adds.

Organic food played a role in Bryce Loewen’s journey back to Blossom Bluff Orchards in Parlier. Loewen, 31, spent a decade in the Bay Area, where he became a strict vegan for three or four years.

“I think that definitely affected my perceptions of organic agriculture,” he says.

After abandoning plans for a career in digital animation, Loewen worked the farmers markets, selling his parents’ organic stone fruit.

“I left the area because I wasn’t interested in farming, and then found out along the way that I was interested,” says Loewen, who returned to the Valley in January. Full article here…

Related posts:

1. Raising the Prairie: The Nation’s First Organic Roof Farm Rises in Chicago
2. HR 2749: Totalitarian Control of the Food Supply
3. In India, Bucking The ‘Revolution’ By Going Organic

Space is a precious commodity, especially now that so much of our backyard or balcony space is occupied by containers for growing organic vegetables. For those of you out there getting tight on space, but who still want beautiful flowers and plants to look at, consider a vertical garden. It’s organic art for your indoor or outdoor wall space and is a beautiful way to help filter air naturally and add humidity to your environment. Check out these beautiful and inspiring small vertical gardens.

A vertical garden is essentially a framework of plants placed onto the side of a building or a wall. They can be placed indoors or outdoors, in full sun or shade, depending on what types of plants you want. You can plant all types of flowers and plants on them, including epiphytes, tropical plants, succulents, ferns and even herbs. Check out ELT Living Wall Systems for a great list of plants to try if you want to do it yourself. In general, plants with shallow roots are better, because they have an easier time staying attached to a vertical wall.

The grandfather of vertical gardens is Patrick Blanc, who is a French Botanist and practically came up with the idea. He is also responsible for a long list of building integrated vertical gardens like these stunning examples. His basic system consists of a steel frame for structural integretity,[sic] a waterproof backing material to keep water off of the building, and felt fabric for the plants to adhere and grow into. Depending on what type of climate the garden is in, then depends on the necessary humitidy [sic] requirements.

Newer companies like ELT Living Wall Systems are starting to come out with wall planting systems like the one above that allow you to plug plants into individualized compartments. ELT now sells a smaller version of their large scale walls through Smith & Hawken now complete with irrigation system. These beautiful units would be a wonderful addition to your kitchen as an herb garden.

This vertical garden is actually made from recycled rain gutters nailed to the side of a house. Suzanne Forsling, who lives in Alaska, came up with this system to keep her salad crops off the cold ground and away from critters, but it’s a perfect way to reuse abandoned gutters and take advantage of empty outdoor wall space. Flowers, herbs, vegetables, and greens could be planted here and if you pair it with a drip irrigation system, you’ve got a perfect vertical planting system.

Here, epiphytes, are stuck into a recessed wall at an installation at the Bardessono Hotel in Yountville, which is a LEED Platinum Certified hotel. Epiphytes, or airplants, attach themselves to objects without need for soil and do not need irrigation, which makes them perfect for such an installation. There is no watering system in place and the plants draw their nutrients and water straight from the air. This fantastic vertical wall was created by Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco. Flora Grubb Gardens is also responsible for the framed living wall below, which is like a tiled mosaic of succulents. Built inside of a large and deep frame, the succulents each have their own pocket and are tightly packed in against each other.

And finally, this adorable little wall was created by Jill Bert, who built a large frame from wood and partitioned it off into sections. Inside she is growing herbs and lettuces in a delightful and artistic pattern. This design looks spectacularly easy enough to create out of leftover wood laying around. Another option for a DIY vertical garden is a Succulent and Moss Trellis, found at Lowe’s Creative Ideas. Click here for a complete how-to creation. This one doesn’t require an irrigation system, just occasional misting to keep the moss moist so it provide stability to the succulents.

For more inspiration and some larger installations, check out these vertical gardens at Apartment Therapy.

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2. Gardening 101: How do I become a no impact gardener?
3. How to create a drought-friendly garden

FoodFreedom

Thursday, June 18, 2009

A new food safety bill is on the fast track in Congress-HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. The bill needs to be stopped.

HR 2749 gives FDA tremendous power while significantly diminishing existing judicial restraints on actions taken by the agency. The bill would impose a one-size-fits-all regulatory scheme on small farms and local artisanal producers; and it would disproportionately impact their operations for the worse.

HR 2749 does not address underlying causes of food safety problems such as industrial agriculture practices and the consolidation of our food supply. The industrial food system and food imports are badly in need of effective regulation, but the bill does not specifically direct regulation or resources to these areas.

To read a detailed account of the bill, go to: http://www.ftcldf.org/news/news-15june2009.htm

(Read the section on tracing. That is NAIS, isn’t it? – highly disguised yet triggered by the word “trace.” )
Alarming Provisions:

Some of the more alarming provisions in the bill are:

* HR 2749 would impose an annual registration fee of $500 on any “facility” that holds, processes, or manufactures food. [isn't this every home in the US, every garden?] Although “farms” are exempt, the agency has defined “farm” narrowly. [What is the definition?] And people making foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, cheeses, or breads would be required to register and pay the fee, which could drive beginning and small producers out of business during difficult economic times. [Yes. There are laws against this corporate-size-destroys-the-little-guy policy, aren't there? Are home bread or cheese or lacto-fermented vegetable makers who make for their own families included in this?]

* HR 2749 would empower FDA to regulate how crops are raised and harvested. It puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to our farmers. [This astounding control opens the door to CODEX. WTO "good farming practices" will include the elimination of organic farming by eliminating manure, mandating GMO animal feed, imposing animal drugs, and ordering applications of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers, thus, will be locked not only into the industrialization of once normal and organic farms but into the forced purchase of industry's products. They will be slaves on the land, doing the work they are ordered to do - against their own best wisdom - and paying out to industry against their will.

There will be no way to be frugal, to grow one's own grain to feed the animals, to raise healthy animals without GMO grains or drugs, to work with nature at all. Grassfed cattle and poultry and hogs will be finished. So, it's obvious where control will take us. And weren't these the "rumors on the internet" that were dismissed but are clearly the case?]

* HR 2749 would give FDA the power to order a quarantine of a geographic area, including “prohibiting or restricting the movement of food or of any vehicle being used or that has been used to transport or hold such food within the geographic area.” [This - "that has been used to transport or hold such food" - would mean all cars that have ever brought groceries home so this means ALL TRANSPORTATION can be shut down under this. This is using food as a cover for martial law.] Under this provision, farmers markets and local food sources could be shut down, even if they are not the source of the contamination. The agency can halt all movement of all food in a geographic area. [This is also a means of total control over the population under the cover of food, and at any time.]

* HR 2749 would empower FDA to make random warrantless searches of the business records of small farmers and local food producers, without any evidence whatsoever that there has been a violation. [If these bills cover all who "hold food" then this allows for taking of records of anyone at any time on no basis at all.] Even farmers selling direct to consumers would have to provide the federal government with records on where they buy supplies, how they raise their crops, and a list of customers.

[NAIS for animals and all other foods?]

* HR 2749 charges the Secretary of Health and Human Services with establishing a tracing system for food. Each “person who produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports, or holds such food” [Is this not every home in the US?] would have to “maintain the full pedigree of the origin and previous distribution history of the food,” and “establish and maintain a system for tracing the food that is interoperable with the systems established and maintained by other such persons.” The bill does not explain how far the traceback will extend or how it will be done for multi-ingredient foods. With all these ambiguities, [with all these ambiguities, it is dangerous, period, separate from the money] it’s far from clear how much it will cost either the farmers or the taxpayers. [It is massive and absurd and burdensome beyond the capacity of people to comply - is this not fascism? - so it is a set up for being used to impose penalties endlessly and/or to eliminate anyone at will.]

* HR 2749 creates severe criminal and civil penalties, including prison terms of up to 10 years and/or fines of up to $100,000 for each violation for individuals. [Does it include judicial review, Congressional oversight, a defined and limited set of penalties and punishments for a defined set of "crimes"? Or is it entirely ambiguous and left to the whim and sole power of "the Administrator"? Who is that person set to be? Is it Michael Taylor, Monsanto lawyer and executive, as Food Democracy has said? That is, do these bills set up an agency by which the entire US food supply will be turned over to the control of a multinational corporation under WTO regulations (and not to US farmers and not to US laws under the Constitution), with boundless freedom to do what it wants, and one infamous for harm to farmers and lack of safety of food?]

If it was not clear before how frightening these bills were, this small section of provisions, should make their actual fascism clear now. It goes way beyond “food safety” to absolute control over farms, animals, food, and us, including our movements and access to food at all.

Action to Take:

Contact your Representative now! Ask to speak with the staffer who handles food issues. Tell them you are opposed to the bill. Some points to make in telling your Representative why you oppose HR 2749 include:

1. The bill imposes burdensome requirements while not specifically targeting the industrial food system and food imports, where the real food safety problems lie.

2. Small farms and local food processors are part of the solution to food safety; lessening the regulatory burden on them will improve food safety.

3. The bill gives FDA much more power than it has had in the past while making the agency less accountable for its actions.

HR 2749 needs to be defeated!! Please take action NOW.

Or, contact your Representative by using the finder tool at www.Congress.org or send a message through the petition system (the petition will be on our website this evening) at http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions_new.htm. Or call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

To check the status of HR 2749, go to www.Thomas.gov and type “HR 2749″ in the bill search field.

Related posts:

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2. Don’t Let Obama Put GMO Boosters in Charge of Food Safety!
3. Organic movement sprouts new crop of farmers

Indian farmer Amarjit Sharma grows wheat and other crops on five acres in the heart of the region known as “the breadbasket of India,” the fertile fields of Punjab.

Until four years ago, he was the kind of farmer whom government leaders and agricultural scientists hailed as a model in the developing world.

But now, he has gone organic and is part of a quiet but growing rebellion, which could affect the world’s food crisis.

Decades ago, when the modern, chemical-reliant system of farming — the so-called Green Revolution of the 1960s and ’70s — swept across his region, Sharma became one of its biggest boosters. He abandoned traditional methods and embraced synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and modern, high-yield seeds, much like any farmer in Iowa.

And for about 20 years, Sharma says, the Green Revolution worked wonders. His crop yields and his income soared. But then, things unraveled.

“The Punjabi farmer’s problems had reached such levels, he wasn’t making any profit,” Sharma says, through an interpreter, as he walks through rows of his waist-high wheat crop.

Kicking The Chemical Habit

Sharma’s soil was deteriorating, so he had to buy more and more fertilizer every year to grow the same amount of crops. No matter how much pesticide he sprayed, insects still destroyed large portions of his crops. Sharma says he “realized the vicious circle in which we were stuck.”

In 2005, Sharma kicked the chemical habit.

Environmental groups in India estimate that more than 300,000 farmers like Sharma have switched to organic growing methods in recent years, or have started the transition from conventional to organic farming. Comparisons between India and the U.S. are difficult because their economies and cultures are so different. But consider this: India has about three times the population of the U.S., but 30 times more organic farmers than the U.S.

Sharma’s story symbolizes the dilemma that developing countries are facing around the world: What’s the most sustainable way to grow enough food? The answers will eventually affect people from India to Indiana, because the world’s population is booming — and if fast-growing countries like India can’t feed themselves, it could trigger more global instability.

Agribusiness leaders and many government officials are convinced that genetic engineering will help prevent a world food crisis. Firms like Monsanto Co. have been inserting genes from animals and bacteria into plants so they can grow faster with less water and resist insects.

Monsanto’s India spokesman, Christopher Samuel, says the company’s advances will double the yields of major crops over the next 20 years, while reducing the amount of land, water, fertilizer and pesticides needed — in the process “protecting the environment and its natural resources,” he says.

But activists in India are trying to block Monsanto and other companies from introducing genetically engineered food crops. They point out that it took decades to raise the alarm about serious, long-term side effects of the Green Revolution. They also say that, so far, there are not good studies examining whether biotech food crops could cause long-term problems.

Organic Farming Spreads In India

So a network of environmental groups has been traveling from village to village, preaching that organic farming is the only way that farmers can survive.

Sharma heard their sermon and became a believer.

He argues that organic means much more than simply not spraying synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. It requires farming in a more thoughtful way, he says.

For example, government policies under the Green Revolution have rewarded farmers for growing “monocultures” — vast areas of a single crop, such as wheat or rice. That can help boost yields, but studies show it has leached crucial nutrients from Punjab’s soil, requiring farmers to use five to 10 times as much fertilizer as they used to about two decades ago.

Organic farmers like Sharma grow a mixture of crops in the same fields as their wheat or rice, including types of beans that replenish the soil — so they don’t have to buy fertilizer. By growing a variety of crops, they also attract beneficial insects, which take the place of synthetic pesticides.

The difference between Sharma’s farm and his chemical-using neighbor’s is visible. The neighbor’s fields are like an endless green shag carpet. Sharma’s farm is like a busy quilt — a patchwork of wheat, beans and mustard plants exploding in bunches of bright yellow flowers.

Mixed Results, Hope For The Future

In the courtyard of his house in the village of Chaina, Sharma reviews his balance sheets.

“Our rice yields under the organic system are almost as good as before,” he says, as his wife scoops up cow manure with her hands and pats it into disks to fuel the cooking fire. “And we’re spending much less money on inputs, since we’re not buying pesticides and fertilizer — although labor costs have increased.”

On the downside, Sharma concedes that since he went organic, his wheat yields have fallen in half.

But he is optimistic. “I’ve been farming organically only for four years now. My land is still recovering from the Green Revolution. So I’m sure my yields will increase,” he says.

Imagine how much organic farmers might be able to produce, Sharma says, if India’s government spent even a fraction of the billions of dollars it has spent promoting chemical farming.

“We are not worried about how much yield we will get,” he says. “We are worried about our families, and our children. We want them to be healthy. We will never sell or eat poison.”

India’s organic movement is getting some support from influential voices in the agriculture industry. Late last year, the Punjab State Farmers Commission, which advises the agriculture department, published a report that angered organic activists by concluding that if all farmers across India went organic — including in Punjab, the most intensively cultivated region — food production would drop and “seriously jeopardize the national food security.”

But the commission’s chairman, Gurcharan Kalkat, says the researchers reached another conclusion: “For 70 percent of the area in the country (outside Punjab), farmers must go for organic farming,” he says, because organic methods will replenish the soil and improve their productivity. As for Punjab, the report concluded that 20 percent of its farmers could go organic and remain productive, too.

And the report says government scientists should begin to help them now.

“They should collect all the new [organic] techniques,” Kalkat says, “so that over the next two years we are in a position to say, ‘If you want to do organic farming, this is the way to do it.’”

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2. Crops under stress as temperatures fall
3. The Importance Of Organic Gardening.

The history of the organics movement in general, and organic farming in particular, began with a group of agricultural scientists and farmers, and later expanded to become a grassroots consumer cause. Initially, organic farmers were reacting to the industrialization of agriculture, which consumers were largely unaware of. It was not until the contrasts between organics and industrial farming became overwhelming that organics began capture the attention of consumers.

The first half of the 20th century saw the introduction of the internal combustion engine, which led to tractors and other mechanized farm equipment. Research in plant breeding led to the production of hybrid seeds. Nitrogen fertilizer – first synthesized in the mid-1800s – became commonly available. There were over 3,000,000 tractors by 1950. As a result, fields grew bigger and fram crops became more specialized to make more efficient use of machinery. In England in the 1920s, a few individuals in agriculture began to speak out against these farming trends.

After World War II, large-scale irrigation, fertilization, and the use of pesticides became common practice. In particular, two chemicals that had been produced for use in warfare were put to use in farming. Ammonium nitrate, used in munitions, became an abundantly cheap source of nitrogen. Soon, new pesticides appeared: DDT, which had been used to control disease-carrying insects around troops, became a general insecticide, launching the era of widespread pesticide use.

In 1944, an international campaign called the Green Revolution was launched in Mexico with private funding from the US. It encouraged the development of hybrid plants, chemical controls, large-scale irrigation, and heavy mechanization in farms around the world. During the 1950s, sustainable agriculture was a topic of scientific interest, but research concentrated on developing new chemical approaches. In the US, J.I. Rodale began to popularize the term and methods of organic farming, particularly to consumers through promotion of organic gardening.

The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) began in France in 1972 for the purpose of sharing information on organic farming all over the world. IFOAM also hoped to counter the impact of “chemically-based” agriculture on the environment and peasant societies. A generous contribution of “seed” money from the Rodale Press helped to make these early developments possible. The Institute was dedicated to comparative trials of different methods of organic cultivation and to show the effects of each on food quality. The oldest of these, inspired by the insights of Rudolf Steiner, was the biodynamic movement, which was mostly influential in German speaking countries. Learn more about IFOAM and organic farming here.

To learn more about biodynamic farming, go to biodynamics.com.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) created the National Organic Program to develop and implement national organic standards in this country. The USDA Agricultural Network Info Center provides general information concerning organic agriculture in the U.S. For more detailed information concerning organic acreage and livestock in the US, as well as informative articles, visit the USDA Economic Research Service. The United States has witnessed massive growth of certified organic farms in cent years. A total of 56 agencies exist in the U.S. which are accredited by the USDA to certify farms. For the first time in the US, all 50 states have certified organic farmland.

To locate a farmer’s market near you, go to the Agricultual Marketing Service’s Farmer Direct Marketing website.

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