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History of Organic Farming in America
By Anneliese Abbott
Organic History
Blog


Who Came Up with "Organic"? Origins of the Term "Organic Farming"
This School of Living announcement from 1939 used the phrase "organic gardening" a year before Lord Northbourne. One of my favorite...

Anneliese Abbott
Feb 63 min read
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"Normal Agriculture" in New Jersey: Stahrland Farm
Alden and Ruth Stahr of New Jersey promoted organic farming in their 1950s newsletter, Normal Agriculture . Thank you again to NOFA-NJ...

Anneliese Abbott
Jan 303 min read
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The Big Ditch: Another Soil Erosion Landmark in Silver City, New Mexico
After the devastating flood of 1902, Silver City's Big Ditch joined the list of soil erosion horror stories. “Today the Big Ditch is a...

Anneliese Abbott
Jan 233 min read
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Soil Erosion Disaster: The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was one of the worst ecological disasters in recorded history--and the impetus for soil conservation I actually agree with...

Anneliese Abbott
Jan 163 min read
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Soil Erosion Landmark: Providence Canyon, Georgia
Providence Canyon, Georgia, was the soil erosion horror story of the 1930s. Now it's a state park. Natural erosion by wind and water...

Anneliese Abbott
Jan 93 min read
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Blame the Americans: Why India Turned Away from Organic Farming
Up through the early 1950s, practically every Indian agricultural writer promoted composting according to Howard’s Indore Method as the...

Anneliese Abbott
Nov 21, 20242 min read
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Gandhi and Organic Farming: A Little-Known Connection
Sir Albert Howard’s Indore Method of composting eventually founded the organic farming movement in the English-speaking world. There’s...

Anneliese Abbott
Nov 14, 20243 min read
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Compost or Chemicals? Fertilizer Experiments in Colonial India
One of the most famous experiments comparing chemical fertilizers and manure is the long-term study at the Rothamsted Experiment Station...

Anneliese Abbott
Nov 7, 20242 min read
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The British in India: Colonial Origins of Organic Farming
Most people agree that organic farming started in India. That’s where Sir Albert Howard, often referred to as the “father of organic...

Anneliese Abbott
Oct 31, 20243 min read
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The Desolate Year: Defending Pesticides with Horror Stories
One of the things that intrigues me most about the anti-organic rhetoric used by scientists is how unscientific and emotional it usually ...

Anneliese Abbott
Oct 24, 20243 min read
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Insect Apocalypse: Promoting Pesticides with Doomsday Fears
A little-known fact about the rise of chemical-intensive agriculture in the United States is that it was motivated by doomsday fears....

Anneliese Abbott
Oct 17, 20243 min read
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Rejected by Society: Why Helen and Scott Nearing Went Back to the Land
While many people went back to the land because of an impending societal crisis, for others the crisis was personal. Such was the case...

Anneliese Abbott
Oct 10, 20243 min read
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Island of Security: Why Louis Bromfield Went Back to the Land
In the twentieth century, each major wave of the back-to-the-land movement has been triggered by some kind of crisis. In 1939, that...

Anneliese Abbott
Oct 3, 20243 min read
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Preparing for the Apocalypse: Doomsday Fears and Homesteading
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...

Anneliese Abbott
Sep 26, 20243 min read
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An Inconvenient History: The Racist Roots of Progress
After completing my master’s degree at UW-Madison and moving home, I spent over a year trying to understand why highlighting a connection...

Anneliese Abbott
Sep 19, 20243 min read
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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...

Anneliese Abbott
Aug 29, 20242 min read
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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...

Anneliese Abbott
Aug 22, 20243 min read
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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...

Anneliese Abbott
Aug 15, 20243 min read
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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...

Anneliese Abbott
Aug 8, 20243 min read
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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...

Anneliese Abbott
Aug 1, 20243 min read
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