Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Welcome to the Rodale Institute web update newsletter.

 Hello Paul: I’ve had the great pleasure of visiting many farmers willing to 
talk about their transition to more sustainable farming practices. They’ve 
been graziers who have parked their tillage, planting, cultivation, 
harvesting and manure-hauling equipment as they learn how to match the needs 
of their herds with the solar-powered potential of their pastures. They’ve 
been corn and grain farmers who have allowed their hedgerows to grow again, 
greatly expanded the variety of crops they grow and added cover crops to 
improve soil and nurture beneficial insects. They’ve included cotton and tree 
farmers who have slashed pesticide use in favor of managing biodiversity to 
benefit their crops as part of a robust living system.
Many of these innovators were looking for paybacks in terms of growing their 
crops and animals, but were surprised—and delighted—by the birds that 
returned to grace the trees, fencelines and sky above their fields. Songbirds 
thrive when they have the food and habitat they need. They are visible and 
audible proof that biological interaction is on the upswing in ways that 
earthworms and beneficial fungi don’t quite have the capacity to do.



Rodale Institute gardener Eileen Weinsteiger walks you through the 
Institute’s perimeter trail this week, giving you a bird-by-bird tour of its 
micro-eco-zones. Read more >>
The ecosystem vitality of a well-balanced organic farm is the macro version 
of the biodiversity within a single complex organism, like you and me. Dr. 
Mark E. Gebhart’s own experience of moving from a serious health crisis back 
to health informs his teaching about the disease-suppressing compounds in raw 
milk. Read more >>
On the news and research front we’ve got beneficial nematodes for fruit 
growers, legislation aimed at curtailing greenwashing in Canada, books about 
soil for kids and the EPA turning up the nozzle on pesticide regulations.
We close this week as a panel of farmers and ag educators meets on our farm 
to help us fine tune our research efforts. We know nothing beats 
farmer-to-farmer advice, and we appreciate being on the receiving end. We’re 
also hosting another field day, inviting farmers and others for a closer look 
at our no-till organic system, what one collaborating professor recently 
termed the “nirvana of agriculture.”



Well, we don’t know about that, but when the golden wheat backdropped by an 
azure sky is waving in the wind, friends are gathered from near and far on 
our 200-year old farm to teach and learn, and work and passion and play 
become one, it does begin to feel like a little slice of heaven.
Greg Bowman and the
Rodale Institute editorial team