Anneliese Abbott
Are Christianity and Environmentalism Incompatible? Refuting Lynn White, Jr.
I am a Bible-believing creationist Christian. I am also an environmentalist and an organic farmer. I see no conflict between the two. But...
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History of Organic Farming in America
By Anneliese Abbott
Organic History
Blog
Anneliese Abbott
- Aug 22
- 3 min
Fighting Racism with Love: Koinonia Farm in the 1950s
“On Monday night, July 26, Koinonia Farm’s roadside market was dynamited. About 10:15 p.m. a car evidently came into the driveway, tossed...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Aug 15
- 3 min
Women and the Land: Organic Gardening at Grailville in the 1940s
Along with the National Catholic Rural Life Conference and Catholic Worker, there was a third organization involved in the Catholic...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Aug 8
- 3 min
Activist Homesteaders: Catholic Worker Communes in the 1930s
An urban organization of activists devoted to social justice and racial equity decided to form a commune and go back to the land. This...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Aug 1
- 3 min
Back to the Land and Back to Christ: Catholic Homesteading in the 1930s
Homesteading was huge in the 1930s. With a shortage of jobs in urban areas and a lack of market for large-scale farmers, many New Deal...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Jul 25
- 3 min
Organic Society: Catholic Agrarianism and Biodynamics in the 1930s
Progressivism had failed in the 1930s. Despite technological innovations, all of the social problems of humanity were just as bad as they...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Jul 18
- 3 min
Spiritual Narratives: Pope Pius XI's Catholic Critique of Materialism
All of the historical narratives that I’ve discussed so far have one thing in common—they are secular. They focus almost exclusively on...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Jul 11
- 3 min
When Facts Don't Fit: Limitations of Critical Race Theory
I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2020 to 2022—during some of the most tumultuous years politically in...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Jul 4
- 3 min
The Newest Narrative: Critical Race Theory and Agricultural History
There’s one more major narrative about agricultural history that I haven’t mentioned yet—not because it isn’t important, but because it’s...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Jun 27
- 3 min
Sir Albert Howard's Version of Agricultural History
Organic farming has always questioned the progressive narrative of history. It has to. After all, if the progressive narrative is true,...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Jun 20
- 2 min
Why the Anti-Organic Historical Narrative Is Progressive
History is storytelling, and there are different types of narratives that can be used to frame a historical event. Last week, I...
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Anneliese Abbott
- May 30
- 3 min
Perils of Fame: How Grape Nuts Turned Euell Gibbons into a Joke
Do a Google search for Euell Gibbons today, and you’re not likely to turn up much about his environmental activism or connection to...
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Anneliese Abbott
- May 16
- 2 min
Jefferson's Dream: New Book About Homesteading History
An agrarian society, where most people live on the land and grow their own food. An emphasis on urban farming, composting, and...
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Anneliese Abbott
- May 9
- 3 min
On a Maine island: Euell Gibbons's Solo Wilderness Adventure
The southeast coast of Maine is dotted with hundreds of islands. Some are large, covered with vacation homes, and visited regularly by...
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Anneliese Abbott
- May 3
- 2 min
The Organic Nature Lover: Euell Gibbons and Organic Gardening
In June 1966, editor Bob Rodale announced a new series of article in Organic Gardening and Farming magazine. Titled “The Organic Nature...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Apr 25
- 3 min
Foraging and Farming: Are They Mutually Exclusive?
As I write this, the wild pin cherry trees are just finishing blooming, white petals drifting down to the ground in a fragrant snow. The...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Mar 21
- 2 min
The First "Organic School" in the US? Ralph Borsodi's School of Living
One of the most difficult aspects of researching the early history of organic farming in the United States is the lack of documentary...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Mar 14
- 2 min
Back to the Land - Organically
As I’ve learned more about the earliest organic farmers in the United States, I’ve tried to figure out what they had in common. What made...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Mar 7
- 3 min
What did Organic Mean in the 1930s? The Idea of an Organic Society
Organic farming did not start in a vacuum. It was part of a broad range of social, political, and agricultural movements that were...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Feb 29
- 2 min
The Organic Whole: Ehrenfried Pfeiffer's Definition of Organic
As far as I am aware, the first book to outline a complete farming system that we would call “organic” today was Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s...
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