Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Steve Diver <steved@ipa.net>]

Folks -

The Master Gardener program in Oklahoma was offering
organic gardening as a regular part of its trainings by the 
mid 1980s.   Of course, the only counties that offer
MG training were the large urban centers.

Likewise, the Horticulture Industries Show, the annual
horticultural growers meeting, started offering sustainable 
ag in the mid- to late 80s and it has been a regular part 
of the annual meetings to this day.  It is now a bi-state 
meeting for AR-OK.  We have brought in some 
of the best organic market farmers in the country as
featured speakers.   The annual conference attracts 
350-450 each year, hosted each January since 1982. 

Likewise, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture was
the third state-wide agency in the U.S. to offer organic
certification, initiated in the last 1980s and officially
opened in the early 1990s, long before the USDA-NOP
program came into existence.

I worked for OSU Extension Service in Muskogee-McIntosh 
counties in the 1980s, and some of my co-horts still do.  

The Kerr Center  for Sustainable Agriculture, the ATTRA 
program staff, as well as a growing number of organic 
farmers in the region all cooperate in association with the
university extension programs in  making these educational 
programs available.

As an aside, it might be helpful to keep in mind that the 
Extension Service is the people's program.  You can request 
the use of Extension Service facilities to host public educational
meetings on organic gardening, composting, and holistic
ecosystem management topics such as permaculture.  This
implies that you find good speakers, as well. 

Steve Diver