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January 30th, 2022 & February 6th, 2022 3-5pm EST Last year we moved our Real Organic Symposium online and over 1750 unique attendees registered for our live sessions (1030+ were farmers) plus an additional 491 viewers registered to view the recorded sessions between February and August 2021. Our 2021 videos are now free and viewable with no ticket requirement […]

Ballymaloe Cookery School Online continues to grow. We have a number of events coming up…We recorded a BBQ cookery course with a few of my favourite recipes on Saturday last. This will be available from July 8th for our BCSO members and for anyone else who would like to book.  Our next Fireside Chat takes […]

Bruce-Michael Wilson, was raised on 160 acres of farm land in Hopkins—a small town in Allegan County, Michigan. As a child, Wilson loved the ample space to roam and passed the time by helping his family with farm work. But as one of the only Black families who owned land in the area, Wilson knew […]

The world premier of the Evolution of Organic (see our previous post on this film here and here) is finally upon us! You can catch the event at the opening Night of Green Film Fest 2017 on April 20 at the Castro Theatre. Schedule as follows: 6:00pm  ::  Opening Night Reception with Mark Kitchell and Festival filmmakers 7:30pm  ::  Evolution of Organic (Mark […]

Can organic farmers build strong, resilient, local SEED economies? Seed Hack, anyone?

The latest post in our ongoing discussion about the inclusion of hydroponics in the National Organic Production standards comes from Helen Lee, a sustainability specialist, consulting and promoting local and sustainable businesses who currently works as a brand ambassador for a maple water company and holds a Master of Science degree in Sustainable Food Systems from Green Mountain College in […]

The Organic Farm School offers 8-month long experiential farmer training-- they offer need-based scholarships and are still accepting applicants for 2017.

See a special sneak-preview of this inspiring new documentary at the EcoFarm Conference on January 27. Spoiler: Sev and the Greenhorns make a cameo.

This recent submission to our series on whether or not hydroponics should be considered organic comes from Joanna Storie, a Doctoral candidate in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences of Estonian University of Life Sciences. She takes a similar stance on hydroponics to our last contributor, adding that hydroponics are not sustainable […]

Last week we asked the Greenhorns network what you think about the vertical farm. A perennially contentious idea, are hydroponics the way to the future or are they a hackneyed and ultimately artificial solution to the current crises of our food systems. The following submission on hydroponics comes from Matthew Hoffman, a Fulbright Scholar, Norwegian Centre […]

Last week the Rodale Institute announced that it was launching the Organic Farmers' Association, headed up by Elizabeth Kucinich, Board Policy Chair for Rodale Institute. From the regional organic farmer associations to the Organic Trade Association to NYFC to your humble Greenhorns here, there sure are a lot of associations composed of or supposedly representing farmers. So maybe […]

[vimeo 170086849 w=640 h=360] Peppered with priceless footage of the origins of the organic movement, this film delves head-first into where we came from and where we're going. Our favorite quote from the trailer?  "Organic can get better." Spoiler alert: the Greenhorns are in this film. Fund them here!

An updated version of Dr. Phillip H. Howard's Who Owns Organic info graphic is now available here. When Howard, who is an associate professor at Michigan State University, first made the info graphic is 2012, a number of independent organic brands had been acquired by larger food corporations. Howard updated the chart because, as he […]

Read this 2008 study on the University of Nebraska's Digital Commons. The study publishes research supported by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program done in 2003 and 2004, which found statistically significant levels of herbicides and insecticides in rainwater in Maryland, Indiana, Nebraska, and California. We'd like to know how these […]

The Gazette, and Iowa City newspaper, recently published a story mentioning the "struggling farm economy" being the cause of the cancellation of a $90,000,000 Monsanto seed corn plant. The story can be found here, but one must ask the question: Is consumer awareness prohibiting the expansion of these GMO giants? Keep putting your money where […]

You have probably noticed that there's a lot of bad news going around these days, and I don't know about you, but sometimes I just need to watch a feel-good video on the internet. Which brings me to today's installment of Californians just do the coolest things! (The link reroutes you to an episode of old TV treasure, California's […]

By Casey C. Sullivan, Esq. If I'm going to spend extra on organic produce and products, they better well be fully organic. We're talking pesticide-free, earth-friendly, non-synthetic organic here. If I get a product labeled organic that doesn't meet those standards, I'm going to feel cheated. And, as of today, I could sue. In an […]

“E.P.A. can no longer be confident that Enlist Duo will not cause risks of concern to nontarget organisms, including those listed as endangered, when used according to the approved label,” the agency said in its filing to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. Read more at the New […]

Keep The Soil In Organic began as a petition started by Dave Chapman, the owner/grower at Long Wind Farm, and David Miskell of Miskell's Premier Organics. Why are we doing this? We are doing this because of our deep concern about a failure to maintain the integrity of the national organic standards. The way that the national standards work is that a […]

[ted id=1356] Lest we forget why we care so much about this whole sustainable ag movement... Tyronne Hayes and Penelope Jagessar Chagger on "The Toxic Baby," or how the chemicals in our world-- especially in our food-- affect our unborn children. AGRICULTURAL REFORM HAS NEVER BEEN MORE IMPORTANT.

Excerpted from Ronnie Collins's essay Regeneration: Global Transformation in Catastrophic Times: We must begin to connect the dots between fossil fuels, global warming and related issues, including world hunger, poverty, unemployment, toxic food and farming, extractivism, land grabbing, biodiversity, ocean destruction, deforestation, resource wars, and deteriorating public health. As we regenerate the soil and forests, and […]

To listen to the radio piece, click HERE! Who is a good farmer? This question of goodness has been important to the popularization of the sustainable food movement. However, consumer evaluations of so-called goodness has become increasingly reliant on labels––“Organic,” “Locally-grown,” “Certified Humane,” “GMO-Free,” the list goes on. But when these labels can be co-opted […]

More than thirty years after his death, people still refer to Alan Chadwick in the present tense, a fascinating testament to the power of his personality and ideas. It is challenging, perhaps even foolhardy, to attempt to capture this complex man – such a huge person and influence – in a few web pages.  The […]

Over the last 14 days, Mark Smallwood has been on a walk. A walk that will hopefully change the way that we look a climate change and think about how we can reverse this disastrous phenomenon. Each day he walks ten miles, on a journey from the Rodale Institute in Kutztown, PA to Washington, DC. Along […]

In today's press release, the USDA has announced new figures that show the organic industry continues to grow domestically and internationally. Certified organic farms and businesses in the United States have witnessed a 245% increase since 2002 while consumer demand continues to increase exponentially. To help producers further access these markets, the 2014 farm bill […]

This is a big deal. Organic Farming Research Foundation Hails Historic USDA Plan To Aid Farmers and Ranchers with Organic Transition Santa Cruz, CA Background: The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service today announced plans to provide $50 million in 2009 to help farmers and ranchers throughout the country transition to organic production systems. The funds […]