“Transition to Organic”
is the name for an expanding toolkit of online resources from
The Rodale Institute. These farmer-centered tools:
- Highlight the benefits of organic farming.
- Assist with decision-making to assess the economics of
risk and potential.
- Show how to convert a farm to meet organic certification
standards.
Jeff Moyer, farm manger at the Institute, is your guide as
you learn about the principles and practices of organics in
the Transition to Organics course ().
You can work at your convenience, in any order, through modules
on soils, crops, livestock, marketing and certification. Moyer
shares his 30 years of experience in pioneering organic grain
systems at the Institute, and invites many other farmers from
across the United States to share the details of their organic
successes and challenges.
The course tackles weed management and other production
challenges, then shows how organic producers can capture the
farming difference in the marketplace through maintaining
quality and organic standards.
We’ve put the Organic System Plan (OSP) worksheets
(developed by our friends at ATTRA) online at ,
allowing you to apply the principles in the course to your
own farm. This plan is the first step toward certification,
and helps your organize orderly consideration of all aspects
of farm conversion. Filling out the OSP walks you through
many of the points an inspector will check, from asking about
your fertility plan to documenting the use of allowed materials.
Together, the course and the online OSP will advance your
knowledge about organic farming practices anyone can use,
and will help you decide whether seeking certification is
a step you want to take on your farm.
To test the economic returns of any size field under two
different scenarios, check the Farm Select calculator (www.newfarm.org/farmselect).
You can test results from organic and non-organic treatments,
or from different crops on the same land. This tool uses the
nearest available USDA data tied to your ZIP code, but you
can enter your own data wherever you want.
Questions? Comments? .
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