We do not know just when farming in Michigan will be seriously impacted by climate change, but we do know that other places are already suffering droughts or flooding attributed to global warming. We also know that greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, are accumulating in our atmosphere and as they help to trap the warmth of the sun, global temperatures are slowly rising. These greenhouse gases are emitted when fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and gas, are burned, but emissions began much earlier from deforestation and soil erosion. More

I attended farmers’ markets for years prior to 2002, the year the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) certification went into effect and prohibited the use of the word “organic”. There had always been vendors who had claimed to be organic farmers, but having never been members of an organic organization with guidelines and literature, and apparently never having done much reading on the subject personally either, seemed to have little real knowledge of all that was involved in organic agriculture. They just knew they didn’t spray “bad chemicals.” It would probably take another organic farmer to recognize the difference, however, and would not have been noticed by the average customer. So the need for clarification was there prior to 2002; and it still is.More

Part of what makes organic farming “organic” are the written regulations that provide the legal definitions and rules. Organic farming regulations provide consistency and a sense of trust in the system. What follows is my attempt to share what I am learning about those rules and the process involved in maintaining or changing them.More

I farm organically because before she married my dairyman grandfather, my grandmother taught nature studies. My primary babysitter when I was too young to help with farm chores, she introduced me to many farm residents who I still count among my friends: the bullfrogs that moo in the duck pond on warm spring evenings, the thrushes whose bell-choir holds the ravine rapt in summer. On clear nights she’d spread a blanket in the hay field so I could learn constellations and ponder my small place in the nature of things.More