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?
Sounds awesome! If you hit reply to this newsletter in your inbox, it goes directly to my email and we can discuss. There is a need for all our stories! Thank you!
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?
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?
Looking forward to your new book and adding my two cents worth by answering your questions from a proper keyboard! But the mint green covered hard bound book your family created was my bible in the mid 70’s. Not sure of the title, but it’s in my storage locker among other treasures!
I'm looking forward to this new book of yours. I'm not sure when it's going to publish but I already know it will be added to the list for our Healthy Readers Book Club. Thank you!
Feels like an utterly natural and timely project for you to dive into, Maria. My own relationship with my garden evolved over the past 35 years while creating flower essences, and from there, deepening into my spiritual/energetic relationship with the heart of Nature, or what I say more carefully 'the World Soul.' When I listened to one of your initial podcasts about the last book you wrote, I felt resonance with your work and have thus stayed connected with you through these substack newsletters. I feel MANY different ways are needed, desperately, in these times to retrieve and cultivate the lost etiquette of a soulful relationship with Nature. And instead of just emulating Indigenous practices, no matter how wise and grounded they are, the deeper challenge is to mine our own soulful indigeneity with the land we inhabit. That soulful ecological retrieval work is heart-work, employing imagination, intuition, deep listening, and intimate relationality with the more-then-human world. Hard heart-work for many of us, but essential not just for survival but for thriving. I'll stop here, and just underscore my appreciation for what you've lived and learned already, and your call to share this in a new book! Kudos to you, and blessings on the work ahead!
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
Sounds awesome! If you hit reply to this newsletter in your inbox, it goes directly to my email and we can discuss. There is a need for all our stories! Thank you!
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?
Thanks!! Great insights!
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?
Looking forward to your new book and adding my two cents worth by answering your questions from a proper keyboard! But the mint green covered hard bound book your family created was my bible in the mid 70’s. Not sure of the title, but it’s in my storage locker among other treasures!
I'm looking forward to this new book of yours. I'm not sure when it's going to publish but I already know it will be added to the list for our Healthy Readers Book Club. Thank you!
Not till 2027! It’s a big book! But thanks for your encouragement!
So excited for you on this. I'll try to think of some answers to your questions. Right now I'm trying to deal with pests - organically!!
Feels like an utterly natural and timely project for you to dive into, Maria. My own relationship with my garden evolved over the past 35 years while creating flower essences, and from there, deepening into my spiritual/energetic relationship with the heart of Nature, or what I say more carefully 'the World Soul.' When I listened to one of your initial podcasts about the last book you wrote, I felt resonance with your work and have thus stayed connected with you through these substack newsletters. I feel MANY different ways are needed, desperately, in these times to retrieve and cultivate the lost etiquette of a soulful relationship with Nature. And instead of just emulating Indigenous practices, no matter how wise and grounded they are, the deeper challenge is to mine our own soulful indigeneity with the land we inhabit. That soulful ecological retrieval work is heart-work, employing imagination, intuition, deep listening, and intimate relationality with the more-then-human world. Hard heart-work for many of us, but essential not just for survival but for thriving. I'll stop here, and just underscore my appreciation for what you've lived and learned already, and your call to share this in a new book! Kudos to you, and blessings on the work ahead!
Thank you! This is a helpful reminder!