Here's my dad's family on an all-American road trip to Tahquamenon Falls around 1970. Dad's on the right, my aunts are in the matching outfits on the left, and Grandpa is holding my uncle. Grandma must be the one taking the picture. I am an American. I’ll never be anything else. I have no other culture, no other heritage. My ancestors originally came from Europe, but they were completely and totally assimilated in the American melting pot. They left no family heirlooms, no t

Many back-to-the-landers in the 1970s wanted to go back to a somewhat romanticized version of the pioneer era During the 1930s, soil conservationists were blaming exploitative pioneering farming practices for most of America’s environmental and social ills. At the same time, a woman named Laura Ingalls Wilder was writing a series of children’s books about what it was like to be a child on the frontier in the 1870s. Though published as fiction, Wilder’s Little House books were

In the 1930s, soil conservationists blamed exploitative pioneer farming methods for the soil erosion crisis. This photo and caption are from the 1938 USDA book To Hold This Soil, by Russell Lord. Like everything else in America, the development of organic farming has been shaped by narratives about the past, present, and future. And no single group has been as integral in these changing narratives as the pioneers—or settler colonists, depending on which narrative you’re using

We're questioning Thomas Jefferson's hero status. Are we willing to do the same with science? I’ve never really been into heroes. That’s probably why I wasn’t super interested in general American history when I was a kid, because pretty much all of the children's history books at the time were heroic narratives. I knew I was supposed to love George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but—dare I admit it?—they seemed boring, too good to be true. They just didn't sound like real pe

Finally, someone else who is excited about the Semiquincentennial! We’re only a month away from the American Semiquincentennial—and it seems like nobody cares. I feel cheated. This could be the only major American history anniversary that I get to experience. I missed the Bicentennial by sixteen years, and if I make it to the Tricentennial I will be eighty-two. But, aside from the too-partisan official celebrations, our country seems to be welcoming its 250th anniversary with

Thought this pesky little critter was a gypsy moth? Not anymore. It's a spongy moth now--including in my book. Finally, after many years of research, my book on organic farming history is almost done! Healthy Food from Healthy Soil: How Organic Farming Came to America and Grew Despite Intense Opposition covers the history of organic farming in America up through June 7, 1971. (Why that date? You’ll have to read the book to find out!). This is mostly new material; I ended up u

The DeLano House only exists today because people worked hard to preserve it in 1976. Why isn't there a similar interest in historic preservation as we approach the 250th anniversary of the United States? The path curves out of sight, its destination hidden by thick forest. “When we go around that curve, we’re going to travel back in time to the 1880s,” I tell the eager group of fourth-graders who are at the Kalamazoo Nature Center for a field trip. “Really?” one wide-eyed gi

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