Organic Food

This book really is for the absolute beginner. We'll cover all the basics in a motivating, easy-to-digest way, and allow nature to do the heavy lifting. We'll discover your green thumb that's been there all along. We'll take good care of our fellow human and our planet. And we'll have a lot of fun doing it! Friend, you really can live the dream, and make it your reality. It all starts with one step.

When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains plants and then become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of toxic substances. Teaming with Microbes offers an alternative to this vicious circle and details how to garden in a way that strengthens, rather than destroys, the soil food web. You’ll discover that healthy soil is teeming with life - not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms.

Drawing on findings from leading health researchers as well as conversations with both chemical and organic farmers from coast to coast, Maria Rodale irrefutably outlines the unacceptably high cost of chemical farming on our health and our environment. She traces the genesis of chemical farming and the rise of the immense companies that profit from it, bringing to light the government's role in allowing such practices to flourish.

Growing on just one and a half acres, owners Jean-Martin and Maude-Helène feed more than 200 families through their thriving CSA and seasonal market stands and supply their signature mesclun salad mix to dozens of local establishments. The secret of their success is the low-tech, high-yield production methods they've developed by focusing on growing better rather than growing bigger, making their operation more lucrative and viable in the process.

When Barbara Kingsolver and her family move from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they take on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally-produced diet, paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle follows the family through the first year of their experiment.

Do something good for your family by learning how to plant a garden that will yield healthy, wholesome food throughout the year. Melissa K. Norris, fifth-generation homesteader and host of the popular Pioneering Today podcast, will walk you through each step of the process, from planning your food crops and garden space to harvesting and preserving the food you grow. Even intermediate to experienced gardeners will discover dozens of new ideas.

There is a major disconnect between what we wear and our knowledge of its impact on land, air, water, labor, and human health. Even those who value access to safe, local, nutritious food have largely overlooked the production of fiber, dyes, and the chemistry that forms the backbone of modern textile production. While humans are 100 percent reliant on their second skin, it’s common to think little about the biological and human cultural context from which our clothing derives.

When Rudolf Steiner gave these lectures 80 years ago, industrial farming was on the rise and organic methods were being replaced in the name of science, efficiency, and technology. With the widespread alarm over the quality of food in recent years, and the growth of the organic movement and its mainstream acceptance, perceptions are changing. The qualitative aspect of food is once again on the agenda, and in this context Rudolf Steiner's only course of lectures on agriculture is critical to the current debate.

The story of the "Lentil Underground" begins on a 280-acre homestead rooted in America's Great Plains: the Oien family farm. Forty years ago, corporate agribusiness told small farmers like the Oiens to "get big or get out." But 27-year-old David Oien decided to take a stand, becoming the first in his conservative Montana county to plant a radically different crop: organic lentils. Unlike the chemically dependent grains American farmers had been told to grow, lentils make their own fertilizer and tolerate variable climates, so their farmers aren't beholden to industrial methods.

Mini Farming describes a holistic approach to small-area farming that will show you how to produce 85 percent of an average family's food on just a quarter acre - and earn $10,000 in cash annually while spending less than half the time that an ordinary job would require.

Some of the most successful people in the microgreen industry are people who just started with a little container of microgreens that they intended to use for themselves.

Organic vegetable gardening offers numerous benefits that appeal to both novice and seasoned gardeners. One of the primary advantages is the enhancement of soil health. Organic gardening techniques prioritize the use of natural amendments, such as compost and cover crops, which enrich the soil with vital nutrients.

Discover how to cultivate a thriving garden - even if you have no space or experience. Convinced you've got two brown thumbs? Absolutely certain that gardening is a skill you're either born with or you’re not? Think again. Gardening usually conjures up images of sprawling backyards and hours of weeding, tending and harvesting - a hobby that's only available to those who have the time and space to spare. In today's world, that couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact, it’s easier and more accessible to get started with gardening than it’s ever been before.

When Bob Quinn was a kid, a stranger at a county fair gave him a few kernels of an unusual grain. Little did he know, that grain would change his life. Years later, after finishing a PhD in plant biochemistry and returning to his family's farm in Montana, Bob started experimenting with organic wheat. In the beginning, his concern wasn't health or the environment; he just wanted to make a decent living and some chance encounters led him to organics.

Louis Bromfield was a World War I ambulance driver, a Paris expat, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist as famous in the 1920s as Hemingway or Fitzgerald. But he cashed in his literary success to finance a wild agrarian dream in his native Ohio. The ideas he planted at his utopian experimental farm, Malabar, would inspire America's first generation of organic farmers and popularize the tenets of environmentalism years before Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

The fundamentals of permaculture are simple: care for people and the Earth, and share what you have. With these in mind, practitioners promote a system with a sense of respect for all life on the planet. You may, however, be anxious about not knowing what to do. After all, not everybody knows about permaculture. But don’t worry–you don’t need to be an expert to start your own permaculture garden.

Are you tired of relying on supermarkets and other outside sources for your fruit and vegetable needs? Are you ready to start growing your own raised bed garden, but you fear you do not have the time or expertise? In this book, discover everything you need to be successful.

Is Organic Worth the Price?

$8 for organic milk. Sure, you could spend half as much, but it’s worth it to know that you’re supporting a small family farm where the cows can munch on green grass all day. Plus, you’re not drinking nasty hormones and chemicals, and you’re doing your part to save the environment. Seems like you’re winning all around, but what would you do if that picture of the happy farm, the personal health, and the clean air and water turned out not to be so pretty? What if organic isn't all it's hyped up to be?

What if organic produce only had marginally less pesticide residues than conventional produce? What if the organic, grass-fed beef cows ended up on the very same feedlots as factory-farmed, grain-fed beef cows? What if large swaths of the country were being taken over by huge corporate-owned farming operations, organic farming operations that were destroying the landscape and depleting the soil? Organic is much more complicated than we’ve been led to believe. From the scale to the possible health implications of pesticides to the treatment of animals, it’s not a black and white issue.

Natural Deception takes a sobering look at one of the fastest growing industries in the world today. We find that organic may be one more buzz phrase used to sell products rather than a movement really concerned for the wellbeing of our planet and its inhabitants. In the spirit of an undercover news reporter, author Joey Lott takes us through the organic food industry point by point, examining our assumptions and revealing the truth. Find out what major corporation owns your favorite small organic brand. Examine whether pesticides may be a health detriment or even partially beneficial.

Everybody eats. We may even consider ourselves experts on the topic, or at least Instagram experts. But are we aware that the shrimp in our freezer may be farmed and frozen in Vietnam, the grapes in our fruit bowl shipped from Chile, and the coffee in our coffee maker grown in Nicaragua, roasted in Germany, and distributed in Canada? Whether we know it or not, every time we shop for food, cook, and eat, we connect ourselves to complex supply networks, institutions, and organizations that enable our food choices.

Are you having trouble distinguishing and choosing which diet is right for you? The Mediterranean Diet Garden is here to help! Here, you will find everything you need to know to pick which diet is best for you: Keto, Mediterranean, or Paleo.