LATEST NEWS OPINION CLIMATE ECONOMY POLITICS RIGHTS & JUSTICE WAR & PEACE

rodale institute

Rodale Institute Announces Organic Farmers Association

New national organization for organic farmers will provide advocacy, latest research and education, and information-sharing among farmers

Rodale Institute, the world's leading organic agriculture research organization, has launched a new membership organization for organic farmers. The new Organic Farmers Association will exist to provide a voice for organic farmers on policy issues, help organic farmers network and share information, and serve as a resource center for organic farmers to succeed.

Advocacy efforts will be led by Elizabeth Kucinich, Board Policy Chair for Rodale Institute. Kucinich has extensive policy experience in Washington, D.C., including serving as the former director of policy at the Center for Food Safety and former director of government affairs at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). Elizabeth is an advisory council member of DC EFF, the world's largest environmental film festival, and is a producer of GMO OMG and Organic Rising.

Keep ReadingShow Less

agriculture

The True Root of Hunger: The Economics of Organic Farming

Hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, according to the U.N. World Food Programme. Yet there is a widespread misunderstanding of why this is.

It may surprise many readers to know that producing enough food is not responsible for world hunger -- we already produce enough food to feed 10 billion people. Hunger is caused by economic inequality. Despite this fact, the farming industry often cites the need to feed a growing population to justify the use of toxic, synthetic chemicals used in conventional farming.

Apples to oranges

Rodale Institute's Farming System Trial has compared organic to conventional farming, side by side, for over 33 years. What we've found is that, in the long term, the yields are the same with organic performing 33 percent higher in years of drought. Looking only at yields, this means that organic can feed the world just as effectively as conventional. Looking beyond the singular issue of yields, it becomes clear that regenerative organic farming is indeed the only way to feed the world in a way that encourages global health, and especially economic equality - the true root of hunger.

Keep ReadingShow Less

agriculture

Back-To-The-Future Agriculture: 'Farming Like the Earth Matters'

It is easy to forget that once upon a time all agriculture was organic, grassfed, and regenerative.
Seed saving, composting, fertilizing with manure, polycultures, no-till and raising livestock entirely on grass--all of which we associate today with sustainable food production--was the norm in the "old days" of merely a century ago. And somehow we managed to feed ourselves and do so in a manner that followed nature's model of regeneration.

It is easy to forget that once upon a time all agriculture was organic, grassfed, and regenerative.

Seed saving, composting, fertilizing with manure, polycultures, no-till and raising livestock entirely on grass--all of which we associate today with sustainable food production--was the norm in the "old days" of merely a century ago. And somehow we managed to feed ourselves and do so in a manner that followed nature's model of regeneration.

Keep ReadingShow Less

agroecology