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...

Although Aldo Leopold feared they were going extinct, sandhill cranes are now a common sight in rural Michigan. I heard them first—that...

Inevitable future catastrophe - or lesson of hope from the past? Environmentalism today is very pessimistic. There’s a constant sense of...

Fertilizer Review magazine called organic farmers "witch doctors" in 1951. When I was teaching an introductory writing class at the...