I was excited to discover that Penn's Cave is still open and offers the same boat tour that the Keene family went on many years ago Penns Creek arises out of one end of a large cave hidden under a cornfield. It simply wells up, full blown, almost frighteningly, from somewhere underground. Several times when our girls were young we went to see Penns Cave and take a ride through it by boat. The boat was carried along on the water by that incredible fountain arising from out of

Organic gardeners in the 1950s took their organic wastes very seriously (Organic Gardening and Farming, July 1954). “Compost-minded crusaders.” That’s what Sir Albert Howard called organic gardeners in March 1947, and it was an accurate depiction. Organic gardeners in the 1940s and 1950s thought about compost all the time. They couldn’t drive or walk down the road without keeping their eyes open for possible sources of organic wastes to add to their backyard compost heaps.

Ruth Stout started writing articles for Organic Gardening in 1954 and became known as the "Queen of Mulch" for her no-till, mulch-intensive gardening system It was the same frustrating story every spring. Right when Ruth Stout wanted to plant her first vegetables, the neighbor’s tractor broke down and he couldn’t plow her garden patch. When it happened yet again in the spring of 1944, Ruth walked out to her garden and looked sadly at her thriving asparagus plants. “Bless your

It's not often that I walk into my small public library and see a book about Michigan's agricultural history--finding this on the new books shelf was a wonderful surprise! “As Dad sips his coffee, he tells us we’re going on a vacation to Lake Leelanau, Michigan.” That’s how Robert “Carlos” Fuentes begins his new book, The Vacation: A Teenage Migrant Farmworker’s Experience Picking Cherries in Michigan (Self-published, 2025). “He tells us on our vacation, we will camp in a ten

After spending weeks looking at Albrecht's soil and climate maps, it was fun to drive across them. The red line is the route I took from Michigan to Kansas. I never expected that I would be the one editing the last few volumes of the Albrecht Papers. But one of my major work projects for Acres U.S.A. this year has been to sort through and scan the photocopies of articles that William Albrecht gave to Charles Walters back in the 1970s. It’s been an interesting and educational

We can build freeways. Can we provide healthy food options for people traveling on those freeways? Between research trips, conference travel, and vacations, I spend a fair amount of time driving on interstate highways. I marvel at the engineering skill it took to build and maintain those ribbons of concrete that cut nonstop for thousands of miles through mountains, valleys, rivers, and plains. The interstate highways transformed American society in the 1950s by providing safe

The bestselling book ( The Late Great Planet Earth ) and the top song ("Wish We'd All Been Ready") of the Jesus movement were both about the Rapture Ever since I started researching the history of organic farming, I’ve been trying to find connections between Christianity and the organic movement. I have found connections with Catholic and mainline Protestant churches. But the type of church I’ve always attended—the evangelicals—is conspicuously absent. And the reason why has

George Washington Carver was an amazing man. But did his composting method have African roots? When I started researching the history of organic farming in 2020, everybody was reading Leah Penniman’s Farming While Black and Monica White’s Freedom Farmers . Based on brief, undocumented statements in these books, many people began claiming that organic farming was a traditional African system brought to the United States by George Washington Carver and later promoted by J.I. R

Yet another new book concludes that feedlots are a better way to feed the world than organic farming. The twist? This time it's aimed at a liberal audience. The war against organic farming isn’t over. In fact, things are starting to heat up again. But this time, the forces opposing organic farming are targeting groups that have historically supported organic farming—and they’re starting to succeed. My first inkling that something fishy was going on was when I read We Are Ea

Solar panels are touted as "green" electricity. But they have drawbacks--like using thousands of acres of farmland and being manufactured from toxic metals. Driving through rural Michigan, dozens of miles from the nearest city, I suddenly run across a construction site. “Watch for trucks,” a sandbag-weighted neon-orange sign warns. I wonder what’s going on. A gravel pit? A new housing development? Half a mile farther, I slow down as the truck in front of me turns into a grave

National defense claims protected pesticides in the 1950s. How can we avoid repeating that history? When President Trump issued an executive order on February 18 declaring glyphosate essential for national defense , the MAHA and organic farming movements were understandably upset. Of course, the biggest response was to reiterate all the reams of evidence that have accumulated proving that glyphosate is toxic. But that’s not going to win this one—and here’s why. Declaring a

Kimberton Farms School is bisected by French Creek, and walking around the whole property involves crossing the creek twice. Twelve miles in space and 163 years in time from Valley Forge, the next stop on my Pennsylvania trip was Kimberton Farms School. That’s what it was called in December 1940 when Ehrenfried Pfeiffer arrived to start America’s first biodynamic training school. The sun had already set by the time I left Valley Forge, and it was dark by the time I drove in

Thank you OEFFA for inviting me to keynote your 2026 conference, Finding Common Ground! A huge thank-you to the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association for inviting me to give the keynote presentation for the 2026 OEFFA conference, Finding Common Ground! I’ve uploaded a recorded version of Together for Organic to YouTube , which I encourage everyone to watch. I customized this presentation for Ohio, but the message is for everyone, and here’s why: We are living in a time

It was winter. It was snowy. So I had to stop at Valley Forge while I was in Pennsylvania. When I saw that Valley Forge was only a twenty-minute drive from Kimberton, I knew I had to stop. Yes, it made my already ten-hour drive a little longer. But 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the United States. And it was winter. And snowy. As every American kid learns in elementary school, it was snowy that winter of 1777–78, too, when the poorly equipped Continental Army set up a has

I've been waiting for a book like this for a long time! For years I’ve been wishing that there was one book that summed up all the fundamentals of organic farming. A book that was clear, concise, and supported by decades of practical experience. A book that I could hand to someone and say, “If you want to understand what organic farming is all about, read this.” I have finally found that book! It’s Eliot Coleman’s The Self-Fed Farm and Garden: A Return to the Roots of the Org

When I was a college student in Columbus, I decided to find out for myself if it was possible to eat healthy on a very tight budget Twenty-one years old, bursting with energy and high ideals, I had three goals when I moved to Columbus, Ohio, to go to college at The Ohio State University. I wanted to live as sustainably as possible, eat a healthy vegetarian diet, and live a frugal lifestyle. In my mind, all three were completely compatible. Yeah, the first two months were a bi

When I signed up to make a map of food availability in Columbus, I didn't expect to be scouring grocery stores looking for elusive cans of bread crumbs. Visiting six grocery stores in one day was an experience I hope I’ll never have to repeat. Well, maybe I should clarify that we didn’t just pop inside the stores, buy a bag of apples or gallon of milk, and head to the next one. I wish. No, we marched in armed with a list of eighty-seven food items and went on a scavenger hunt

Despite not using the term "health equity," the new Dietary Guidelines are an important step in that direction. The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans , just released last week, are the first ever in American history to prioritize natural, whole foods and take a strong stance against highly processed foods and added sugars. In a recent news article for Acres , I describe how these guidelines, despite their overemphasis on meat, are the closest thing the USDA has ever

Was Milton Whitney a villain or an early advocate of regenerate farming? Milton Whitney is the closest thing soil science history has to a villain. Not only did he have an abrasive personality and get in serious conflicts with most of his colleagues, but he’s gone down in infamy for making the following statement in a 1909 USDA bulletin titled Soils of the United States : “The soil is the one indestructible, immutable asset the Nation possesses. It is the one resource that ca

The OEFFA conference is only six weeks away! For this first week of 2026, I’d like to highlight some of the new and exciting things that are coming up—soon! First of all, I am giving the keynote, “Together for Organic,” for the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association’s 47th annual conference , “Finding Common Ground,” on February 14 in Newark, Ohio. I’ll be highlighting the past, present, and future of how we can bring people from diverse backgrounds together to build an