Posts Tagged ‘soil’
Presentation at the MOSES Organic Farming Conference – Getting the Organic Message Out to Consumers | 2005
Getting the Organic Message Out to Consumers Presented at the MOSES Organic Farming Conference LaCrosse, Wisconsin February 25, 2005 Roger Blobaum We need to do much more to document the benefits of organic farming and to convey this information to others. Surveys of organic farmers show they feel that educating consumers about these benefits is…
Read MoreIowa Farmer’s Transition to Organic Pays Dividends In Fertile Soil, Healthy Livestock, and Direct Markets
by Roger Blobaum Clarence Van Sant, who farms 135 acres of rolling land in central Iowa, has never put much stock in the advice of economists who insist farmers have to keep getting bigger to make it. Nor has he accepted the suggestions from his land grant university and others that you have to apply…
Read More‘Every Year Was Better; The Fourth Was the Turning Point. It Was Just Wonderful To Be Able to Farm That Way Again’
by Roger Blobaum If you’re wondering whether large family-type farmers can kick the chemical habit and still grow plenty of food profitably, you should see the three organic operations just north of State 33 near Fremont in eastern Nebraska. These up-to-date farms cover more than 1,300 acres of some of the most productive land on…
Read MoreKansas Organic Farmer’s Profitable Operation Bypasses Traditional Market System Entirely
by Roger Blobaum Bennie Unruh of Aulne, Kansas, is an organic farmer who has developed health food market outlets for all his grain and beef and bypasses the traditional marketing system entirely. In additional to producing grain and cattle on a farm that has been in his family since 1872, he has been a registered…
Read MoreThree Nebraska Organic Farmers Beat Worst Drought Since the 1930s
by Roger Blobaum Several large family-type organic farmers in the Fremont, Nebraska, area have been producing lots of grain and livestock profitably without agricultural chemicals. In 1974 this eastern Nebraska sector was hit by the worst drought since the Dust Bowl days of the mid-1930s. It was turned into a government-declared disaster area by searing…
Read MoreHow Organic Practices Transformed Scalped Hilltop Acreage Into ‘Organic Experimental Acres’ Homesite in South Dakota 1972-1975
By Roger Blobaum Gary Schmeichel accepted quite a challenge eight years ago when he started using organic methods to put the top soil back on a hilltop scalped by machinery taking fill for a road-building project. He was assured by local experts, including the county agent, that the 16 acres of heavy yellow clay would…
Read MoreEuropean Soil Scientists Discuss Biological Farming at Summer Organic Farming Workshop at Boys Town 1972-1975
By Roger Blobaum A fascinating view of biological agriculture was presented by Dr. Herbert H. Koepf, a soil science professor from Europe, at an Omaha-area workshop for organic farmers and others from the Midwest. Also appearing at the all-day August session was Pierre Ott, a French agronomist now teaching at the University of California at…
Read MoreMinnesota Farmers Make History by Obtaining the Nation’s First Organic Farming Research Grant
By Roger Blobaum The attitude of big universities that grab all the agricultural research money and insist they should decide what needs to be investigated is stirring up some sharp competition from a group of organic farmers in Minnesota. Six months after setting up the Soil Association of Minnesota, they had landed a…
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