I’m proud of the growth in the organic sector. According to the Organic Trade Association, organic sales in the United States have increased from $3.6 billion in 1997 to over $39 billion in 2014. This double-digit rate of growth holds true for Canada, too, which is now the fourth-largest organic market in the world. This […]
March 2, 2015
Here's the real irony: campaigns like "New MacDonald" threaten to alienate the very people the organic sector needs most right now: farmers. In my opinion, it's time to start building bridges, not digging trenches.
February 10, 2015
What would our conversations about food and agriculture look like if we strove for mutual understanding rather than a conversion to our way of thinking? What if the loser of an argument was the one who had failed to gain any understanding or appreciation for the viewpoints of their opponent?
November 24, 2014
I have a confession to make: in late August, I attended a conference sponsored by Big Ag. Wait, it gets worse…I went because I was invited to take part in a panel discussion. But that’s not all. One of my fellow panelists was a conventional farmer who grows thousands of acres of crops, many of […]
August 19, 2014
We should all recognize by now that “feeding the world” is much more a logistical and political challenge than an agricultural one. As a farmer, however, I spend a lot of time thinking about producing food economically, efficiently, and ecologically. Conventional wisdom dictates that genetically-engineered crops are a vital part of the overall solution, while organic […]
June 27, 2014
I just listened to a recent interview with Julie Borlaug, associate director for external relations for the Norman E. Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M. Julie is the daughter of the scientist who is often referred to as the ‘father of the Green Revolution,” which saw the introduction, beginning in the late 1950s, of […]
June 6, 2014
It’s been a little over four years since I joined Twitter and a year since I started blogging. What I originally considered a way to share information about my farm has evolved into something that feeds my passion for informed discussion and logical debate. The farmers, scientists and bloggers I’ve encountered have radically altered the […]
April 10, 2014
According to a news release published yesterday and widely parroted around the web, Walmart is poised to take its “lowest price is the law” approach to some of its organic offerings, promising to make organic food “affordable” to all. According to their own research, 91% of its shoppers would buy organic food if the price […]
March 26, 2014
If your views tend toward the “pro-GMO” perspective, you’re the audience I had in mind when writing this piece. Here’s my thesis: I believe mandatory labels would be the best tool to provide clear, accurate and consistent information to consumers about foods containing, or derived from, genetically engineered crops and animals, and they would also […]
January 10, 2014
This is a story of two talks, both of which are almost identical. It’s also the story of two people, both of whom are also the same person. What separates both are a couple of years, perspective gained, and perspective lost. I first heard Dr. Don M. Huber, Emeritus Professor of Plant Pathology at Purdue […]
February 10, 2016
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