US carbon emissions have declined 20% since 2005--mostly because natural gas has replaced coal in electric power generation. Data from US EIA. It might have seemed unattainable in 2005, but we’ve done it! We have successfully lowered US carbon emissions below 1990 levels. In fact, CO 2  emissions from fossil fuels in the United States have dropped 20 percent since 2005 and are the lowest they’ve been since 1987. And that’s with a population increase of 14 percent—a 30 percent

Per capita milk consumption has plummeted since the 1940s. Does it have anything to do with processing? Data from USDA-ERS. As someone who spends a lot of time studying the past, I’ve found it very interesting to compare today’s movement against overprocessed foods to the natural foods movement of the 1940s. There are a lot of similarities, but one major difference is that today’s movement seems excessively focused on beef and beef tallow, which weren’t considered “protective

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

When settlers came to southwest Michigan in the 19th century, they found long-abandoned Indigenous garden beds. I’m often asked why I don’t write more about historic Indigenous agriculture when I’m discussing the history of organic farming. One reason is that nobody today really knows much about Indigenous agriculture before European contact. That’s why a recent archaeological discovery on the border between Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula  is so interesting. Using l

The AMA's 1959 film "The Medicine Man" discouraged people from eating whole wheat and other healthy foods. I’ve run into all sorts of unexpected things in the course of my research on organic farming history. Some are funny, some are intriguing, and some are disturbing. And now that I’m up to the late 1950s in drafting my book chapters, I’m in the most disturbing time period of all—when government agencies and trusted scholarly authorities withheld important health informatio

J.I. Rodale decided to take a humorous approach to the critics of organic farming. So, apparently, did cartoonist Joe Genovese, who drew...

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...

The term "organic farming" was not widely used before the late 1930s. But who used it first? I interrupt the series of articles on the...

The first students at Michigan Agricultural College spent three hours a day clearing forests and draining swamps. The land-grant...

The concept of "land-grab universities" was so polarizing in 2021 that I was unable to research the actual history of the land-grants...

Monsanto advertised Krilium as a way to make soils "friendly." But did it work? Organic matter was really big in the early 1950s. Even...

From 1948 to 1950, the fertilizer industry encouraged farmers to build organic matter - and use fertilizer. “Organic matter is the life...

First prize for the fertilizer industry-sponsored soil conservation essay contest was a 1949 Buick Super 4-Door Sedan How would you like...

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...

The glaciers in Glacier National Park are melting. Will the park still be worth visiting and preserving once they're gone? I love...