Help Me With My New Book!
It will be fun!
Since it is now public knowledge, I’m happy to share that I will be working on a major new book for the next two years. Before I get too old and too forgetful, it’s time to dig back into both my personal history and the cultural history of the Organic Movement, which I witnessed at the kitchen and board room tables.
A book like this is a major project. I’m doing lots of interviews. Reading old books and new scientific studies. And asking tons of questions. That’s where you come in! I’d love to know your perspective on the history of the organic movement. Here is a list of questions I have for you that you can feel free to answer or ignore:
What was your earliest experience with Organic food or gardening?
What are the positives you associate with it?
What are the negatives you associate with it?
What are the biggest barriers to organic for you personally?
Are there people you know whom I should interview?
Are there books I should read?
Do you have any funny or interesting stories you’d like to share with me?
What are you confused about when it comes to organic?
That’s enough for now. I may come back to you all later or throughout the process with more questions. For those of you who don’t know my background, my grandfather, JI Rodale, is considered the founder of the modern Organic Movement in the US. My father coined the term Regenerative Organic Agriculture. I’ve written a number of books on gardening, food, organic farming, and nature-based spirituality. My goal in this book is to write a definitive history of the movement, re-incorporate Indigenous people and women into the story, and share my own experience as both a child growing up on an organic farm, a business woman running a publishing company in the health and organic space, and a long time board member and co-chair of the Rodale Institute.
You can reply in the comments or hit reply to this email, and it will come directly to my inbox.
Thank you!
So I hope we don’t flood the market for organic history books as I am working on something similar only from a Midwest perspective. I grew up in Iowa and my father graduated from Iowa State University with degrees in agronomy and economics. My story starts as a star farmer in FFA who eventually goes broke during the 1980s Farm Crisis, picks up the pieces and gets somewhat of a journalism degree and starts a 15-year career in newspapers that culminates as the agriculture reporter for the Dubuque daily newspaper. During that time I covered controversies such BST in dairy and GMOs in crops. I met and interviewed Biological Farmer Gary Zimmer (who I remain friends with to this day and lives about 20 miles away). At one point as the internet was bringing newspapers to their knees, my wife and I founded an organic egg brand and were certified organic for both crops and the chickens for more than 20 years before selling the business and retire as a part-time organic inspector. I have several connections to Rodale — the New Farm magazine was a guide to many of us in the emerging organic farming movement. More recently I worked for Rodale’s consulting division as a crop advisor. One of the highlights of my organic life was a visit to the Rodale farm in Kutztown. So this is getting too long, but I am just wondering about how we might collaborate on this important historical subject. For instance, I have a very good friend who was a founding board member of Organic Valley. So really the melding of East Coast/Midwest organic history is an interesting idea. I also do not have a publisher as yet and looking for help in that area. I have about four chapters written and it is kind of heading towards more of a memoir, which may not be a terrible thing. Hoping we can compare notes and see where it leads?
Dean Dickel
Mineral Point, WI
1. What was your earliest experience with Organic food or gardening? I first heard about organic food and gardening when I was a teenager in the 1960s. This was around the era of Diet for a Small Planet, The Whole Earth catalogue etc. I'm not a gardener but I've been buying organically grown food in farmers markets and natural food stores for decades. When I did graduate work at Cornell in Ithaca NY, I ate at Moosewood Restaurant and bought organic baked goods at the Somadhara Bakery (now Oasis Deli). Joined food coops in Manhattan and Ithaca.
2. What are the positives you associate with it? Fresh and full of taste. I'm a vegetarian, so I can only comment on veggies, fruits, plant based products. Glad to avoid as many chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers as possible and support local and smaller scale, not industrial agriculture, when I can. Of course, nowadays we can buy some organic foods in supermarkets, not just specialty shops or fresh markets. I have to wonder how "industrial" these berries and carrots are.
3. What are the negatives you associate with it? Expensive. Sometimes hard to find.
4. What are the biggest barriers to organic for you personally? Finding the food products I want to cook or changing the recipe. I do not buy conventional produce. Unfortunately when I eat in restaurants, I know sometimes I'm eating conventional produce.
5. Are there people you know whom I should interview? I love the vendors and small farmers at the Ithaca farmers market.
6. Are there books I should read?
7. Do you have any funny or interesting stories you’d like to share with me? I have to say, embarassingly, that when our mother was diagnosed with cancer back in the 70s, one of my sisters suggested she buy and eat organic chicken and I privately scoffed at that idea.
8. What are you confused about when it comes to organic? What about the big commercial growers/brands like Driscoll that supply organic fruit to supermarket chains or lower cost outlets like Trader Joe's? Can we "trust" their organic quality?