ORGANIC CROPS OUTPERFORM CONVENTIONAL IN DROUGHT AND FLOOD
From The New Farm®, www.newfarm.org
Imagine the press that would be generated if the genetic engineering industry developed a transferable gene that would allow crops to yield 35% to 100% more under drought conditions. Well, the organic “industry”, a.k.a. organic farmers and researchers, has done the equivalent, not via genetic engineering, but by developing a soil-plant system that improves soil structure.
http://www.newfarm.org/depts/NFfield_trials/1103/droughtresearch.shtml

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REDIFINING THE TERM "FAMILY FARM"
From The New Farm®, www.newfarm.org
Full Belly Farm located just west of Sacramento, California, is an extraordinary place. Despite its 35 full-time workers, 15 retail accounts, 15 wholesale accounts, 650 member CSA and three farmers’ markets almost year ‘round, Full Belly still has the heart and soul of a small family farm.
http://www.newfarm.org/features/1103/fullbelly.shtml

FROM STRIP MINE SPOILS TO ORGANIC SOILS
From The New Farm®, www.newfarm.org
Through a slow odyssey from joyful childhood years on a family farm in strip-mine-wasted Ohio to an intellectual understanding, in college, of the environmental and social value of small-scale farming, Susanna Meyer has unexpectedly found herself to be… a farmer. And now she's on the road in Costa Rica, trying to glean lessons she can bring back to an urban farm in Pittsburgh.
http://www.newfarm.org/columns/susanna_costarica/intro.shtml

DAIRY

THE GOOD LIFE OF A SMALL-SCALE ONTARIO DAIRY FARMER
From The New Farm®, www.newfarm.org
The good life of a small-scale Ontario dairy farmer depends on being part of a dynamic coop. Odelia Osthaus likes her herd at its current size. She likes the life she and her children lead. … and the savvy marketing and smart management of the OntarBio organic farmers’ coop make it all possible.
http://www.newfarm.org/international/canada_don/ontario/index.shtml

POLICY

BRITISH ECOLOGIST LAYS OUT BLUEPRINT FOR INFLUENCING PUBLIC POLICY TO FABOR SUSTAINABLE AG
From The New Farm®, www.newfarm.org
Jules Pretty, author, ag scholar, and aggressive proponent of a new way to farm, visited the Ecology Initiative of the Leopold Center
for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa. He argues that if we hope to change anything, we must make clear to policy makers the steep costs of conventional ag while documenting the social and environmental benefits of sustainable production.
http://www.newfarm.org/depts/talking_shop/1103/UKecologist.shtml