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Changing the World--From the Ground Up
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21911 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1993 |
3,177 Words |
| Author
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Jonathan Harsch
Farm policy analyst and speaker Jonathan Harsch travels
extensively in search of better ways of farming. He authored
the USDA publication New Industrial Uses, New Markets for U.S.
Crops and spoke at the international 1992 Sustainable
Agriculture conference in France. |
When Bob Rodale was killed in a Moscow traffic accident in 1990, fans and critics alike predicted the collapse of his flourishing agricultural research and publishing organizations. Yet two and a half years later, the Rodale Institute and Rodale Press are doing more than just carry on Rodale's work. They are expanding into new areas and increasing their influence on public policy in the area of sustainable agriculture.
As defined very precisely by Bob Rodale and his father, J.I. Rodale, before him, the Rodale Institute's 50-year-old mission is sharply focused: Give the world's farmers the information and encouragement they need to reduce their use of harmful chemicals and to phase out other non-sustainable farming practices.
This simple mission for one American family's Pennsylvania-based legacy enfolds a remarkable range of goals and implications--along with a global reach stretching from Virginia to Iowa and California and from Guatemala to Senegal and Japan.
Underlying the mission is the enduring Rodale conviction that as farming practices around the world improve, complex changes will take place that improve soil, water, and air quality--and the overall quality of life. As a direct result of such changes, not only will mankind reverse the current trend of a deteriorating world environment but human health will improve dramatically.
At its broadest level, the Rodale message is that as mankind relearns how to respect and work with the soil rather than treat it like dirt, men literally will get back to their roots and build healthier, happier relationships and societies.
After a half-century of promoting this cause, the Rodale campaign has proved to be remarkably effective. Today, just as the visionary J.I. Rodale predicted when he coined the term organic farming in his first publications in the 1940s:
a steadily increasing number of farmers have successfully replaced chemical inputs and monocropping with alternative practices such as soil-enriching cover crops, crop rotations, and careful management of beneficial insects for pest control;
intensive use of chemical herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers is widely questioned by farmers, policymakers, and the agricultural research community;
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