I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2020 to 2022—during some of the most tumultuous years politically in...

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...

Organic farming has always questioned the progressive narrative of history. It has to. After all, if the progressive narrative is true,...

History is storytelling, and there are different types of narratives that can be used to frame a historical event. Last week, I...

One of the most important things I learned in graduate school was that history is storytelling—and that there are different ways to tell...

When I first started writing about the past, I had lofty ideals. My goal was simple—to find the truth and tell it. I often wished that it...

Do a Google search for Euell Gibbons today, and you’re not likely to turn up much about his environmental activism or connection to...

One stereotype of the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s was that young people didn’t listen to—or trust—anyone over thirty. That may...

An agrarian society, where most people live on the land and grow their own food. An emphasis on urban farming, composting, and...

The southeast coast of Maine is dotted with hundreds of islands. Some are large, covered with vacation homes, and visited regularly by...

In June 1966, editor Bob Rodale announced a new series of article in Organic Gardening and Farming magazine. Titled “The Organic Nature...

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...

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

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

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

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...

One of the most difficult aspects of researching the early history of organic farming in the United States is the lack of documentary...

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...

Organic farming did not start in a vacuum. It was part of a broad range of social, political, and agricultural movements that were...

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...