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


Flawed Logic: Would 4 Billion People Die Without Nitrogen Fertilizer?
This graph implies that it's impossible to feed the world with organic farming. But what data is it really based on? “Without the...

Anneliese Abbott
Apr 103 min read
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Weapons and Fertilizer: The Haber-Bosch Process of Nitrogen Fixation
The Haber-Bosch process of fixing nitrogen produces a lot of fertilizer--but its first application was for weapons. Cut open one of the...

Anneliese Abbott
Apr 33 min read
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The Nitrogen Paradox: Is Feeding the World the Real Issue?
Biological nitrogen fixation fed the world until the end of the nineteenth century. What changed? Is it possible to feed the world’s...

Anneliese Abbott
Mar 273 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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1 comment


Forbidden Perspectives: How Breaking Academic Consensus Cost Me a PhD
There’s a big difference between graduate and undergraduate college classes. In most undergraduate classes, you sit and listen to a...

Anneliese Abbott
Sep 12, 20243 min read
36 views
2 comments


Toxic Labs: Why I Don't Have a Graduate Degree in Plant Science
Note: Everything in this post is true, but I have omitted the name of the professor and the research institution to protect everyone...

Anneliese Abbott
Apr 18, 20243 min read
59 views
1 comment


Torturing the Data Reprise: Grant Proposals
Note: Everything in this post is true, but I have omitted the name of the professor and the research institution to protect everyone...

Anneliese Abbott
Apr 11, 20243 min read
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Lab Culture: Inside an Agricultural Research Lab Group
Note: Everything in this post is true, but I have omitted the name of the professor and the research institution to protect everyone...

Anneliese Abbott
Apr 4, 20243 min read
90 views
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Torturing the Data: How to Make Sure Your Scientific Research is Significant
I loved science when I was a kid—especially biology. I loved learning more about nature, going out in the woods to look at plants and...

Anneliese Abbott
Mar 28, 20243 min read
33 views
1 comment


Peanut Butter Decomposition: My Successful C:N Ratio Experiment
Six years after my failed pot fertility experiment at OSU, it happened again. The instructor for my Soil Microbiology class at the...

Anneliese Abbott
Feb 8, 20243 min read
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Perils of Permaculture: Why the C:N Ratio of Mulch Matters
Fresh out of my first year of agronomy classes, I was excited to do my first internship at an organically managed CSA. My job at the...

Anneliese Abbott
Feb 1, 20243 min read
30 views
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The Real Dirt on no-Till: Why Herbicides Aren't Saving the Environment
Tillage is bad. That’s the message I was getting in all of my agronomy classes at Ohio State. No-till farming was the most...

Anneliese Abbott
Jan 25, 20242 min read
35 views
2 comments
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