Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Welcome to the Rodale Institute web update newsletter.
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 Hello Paul: A year ago, who knew:
What would happen to conventional commodity prices, pushed into the
stratosphere in mid-2008 by global demand, unbridled futures speculation
and domestic ethanol, then whacked down below cost of production by
collapsing everything? …and the havoc that rough journey would wreak
within organic grain and dairy sectors?

That progressive farm-policy reform advocates would have a political
context to even seriously think of promoting Michael Pollan and Fred
Kirschenmann as candidates for “Secretary of Food”?

That agricultural carbon sequestration would become such a perceived
economic bonanza that Monsanto would host a formal agribusiness campaign to
write the rules for what it means and how to document it.

That nearly 30 years of “healthy soil” research at the Rodale Institute
on the dynamics of successful organic farming would also yield the
foundation data for the Institute’s Organic Green Revolution research
review, issued earlier this month. Read more >>
This was the year that agriculture would be recognized in startling news
ways as the messy intersection of ecology, economy and energy. The shocking
downsides of treating food as a free-trade commodity were painfully laid
bare, as food shortages and unaffordable petro-derived inputs rocked many
countries. This drama in the first half of the year heightened the impact
of a chorus of global research conclusions in the last half of 2008 that
organic and regenerative agriculture hold the key to future food security
in communities around the world. Read more >>

The new Natural Agriculture garden at the Rodale Institute models simple
beauty.

Since March 15 we brought you news and insights in our new Web format. It
joined the historic “New Farm for farmers” stream with our expanded
emphasis on how organic agriculture delivers practical answers to the
mounting danger of global warming and the critical need for famine
prevention and feeding more people everywhere. We’re also bringing you
news on how organics improves nutrition, and ways that kids and families
can experience the food-farming universe in fun ways.

Enjoy the holidays as you take stock of what really matters. Think twice
about your turkey as you digest what nutritionist Melinda Hemmelgarn says
about how your choice of birds impacts everyone’s health. If you are
stuck at home by snow or a limited travel budget, visualize a place of
“balance, beauty, respect, simplicity” in Eileen Weinsteiger’s
description of Rodale Institute’s new demonstration garden.

Who knows what ahead for 2009? No one, for sure. But know this: whatever
reverses come to organics from economic malfunctions seen and as yet
unseen, its core regenerative power will continue to deliver because
“healthy soil=healthy food=healthy people.”

Greg Bowman and everyone
at the Rodale Institute