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

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