Scooter the cat understands stewardship now--after I tamed him! One of my favorite lectures that I attended at the Acres U.S.A. conference was Keith Berns’s session on “Stewminion: A Biblical Approach to Environmentalism.” Keith coined the word “stewminion” by combining “stewardship” and “dominion.”   As Keith pointed out, a lot of people get uncomfortable with the word “dominion.” “Some people think dominion means we can do whatever we want to creation because we are suppose

Almost everyone I talked to said that the 2025 Acres U.S.A. Eco-Ag conference was one of the best ever. I spent most of last week in Madison, Wisconsin at the annual Acres U.S.A. Eco-Ag conference. Although I’ve been writing articles for Acres for years, this was the first time I made it to the conference. That’s because I work for Acres now and they paid for me to go so I could work the bookstore, introduce speakers, etc. But they didn’t  pay me for writing this post or tell

I've always wanted to visit Warren Woods - the last stand of old-growth hardwoods in Michigan This week I finally visited a Michigan state park I’ve been wanting to see for years. It’s not very big or very well-known, but Warren Woods State Park is , as far as I’m aware, the only stand of old-growth beech-maple forest left in southern Michigan. Back in 1879, a visionary man named Edward K. Warren  purchased this 311-acre tract of forest solely for the purpose of preserving it

I've been waiting for a book like this for years! For over forty years, there’s been a stereotype that only liberals care about the...

J.I. Rodale's original chicken house at Founders Farm is a work of art. After dropping my luggage in my room, it was time for my tour of...

J.I. Rodale's original farmhouse--birthplace of the organic farming movement--is now owned and maintained by the Rodale Institute and...

Walnut Acres, in Penns Creek, Pennsylvania, was the first organic mail-order food company in the US. I knew it was the right place. It...

Bromfield dreamed of aging cheeses in caves at Malabar--but would any of them have been suitable? One of the hardest things about writing...

Getting a behind-the-scenes tour of Malabar Farm in 2015 started my career as a writer. I can’t believe it’s already been ten years since...

Being invited to speak on the topic of "Finding Common Ground" is a dream come true for me. I was thrilled when the Ohio Ecological Food...

I appreciate Hannah Ritchie's optimism, but disagree about whether organic farming can feed the world. I’m always on the lookout for new...

When I was a student at The Ohio State University, I always wondered why Kottman Hall had so few windows. The legacies of the Cold War...

On the surface, this just looks like a ranch-style house. But what's underground could destroy civilization. September 29, 2011—Rapid...

I'll be presenting on "Can Organic Feed the World?" at both the NOFA-NJ and OEFFA winter conferences Now that the holidays are over, tis...

The original headquarters of CAST was in Agronomy Hall at Iowa State University It’s the first week of November, and I’m on the road...

The Pfeiffer papers are in the basement of this building at Fellowship Community My final stop on my June research trip is in New York,...

The July 1940 issue of You Can't Eat That contains the first article that J.I. Rodale reprinted about organic farming “But now you’re...

It’s 6:30 a.m., the sun is shining, and it’s milking time in the Camphill Village Kimberton Hills dairy barn. I walk over from Sherry’s...

What better time than Thanksgiving Day to look back with gratitude on all the amazing experiences I’ve had this year? I know, it might...

I find connections to organic farming in the most unexpected places. This time, it was in a random book I just picked up from the library...