Eco Ag Resources

[Organic Gardening] [Eco-Farming] [Food Sources]
[Gardening for Wildlife]

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What is Eco-Agriculture?
Agricultural Justice Issues

Joel Salatin, A Visionary
    The Family Friendly Farm
    Balance - Stability for Your Life & Farm
    'Sound Science' is Killing Us

Sustainable Agriculture Resources
    Promoting Sustainable Ag (another list)
       Union of Concerned Scientists (another list)
    Acres U.S.A.
    Ag Consultants
    Alternative Farming Systems Information Center
    ATTRA
    Bee Keeping
    Beginning Farmers
    Biodynamic Agriculture
    Books
    Certification Programs,
    Crossroad Resource Center
    Don't Panic, Eat Organic - the organic grower's homepage
    Grow Biointensive
    Holistic Management of rangelands
    Midwestern Bio-Ag (Wisconsin)
    Mini Farms
    Non-Toxic Farming
    NutriTech Solutions (Australian site - lots of info)
    Permaculture
    Poultry Farming
        Minerals & Animal Health
    SARE program
    Sea Energy Agriculture
    Soil Foodweb - Compost Tea
        Microbe Tea
    Soil Testing
         Brix Testing
    Spin Farming
    Sustainable Ag Primer
    Website design - Small Farm Central
Sustainable Farming Organizations
   ECHO (overseas development)
    Innovative Farmers of Ohio
    Michael Fields Agricultural Institute (Wisconsin - research)
    Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association (OEFFA)
    Sustainable Farming Connection
    The New Farm
    WWOOF USA - Organic Farm Volunteeer Opportunities

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What is Eco-Agriculture?

" The science called eco-agriculture is not complicated. But it is infinitely more sophisticated than the current “chemical amateurism” running rampant across our land. Eco-agriculture simply holds that to be economical, agriculture most be ecological. By contrast, for the last 50 years farmers should have been paid depletion allowances as they mined their soil — all to satisfy an international cheap food policy.
But there is another way...."

Acres U.S.A.
This article is from the Web site of a remarkable magazine, Acres U.S.A. Check them out

The Acres U.S.A. Philosophy

" "Toxic technology is sunset technology," announced the lead editorial in our first issue. The years since then, almost three decades worth, have only amplified the validity of that simple argument. Fifty years of soil mining, intensive monoculture, and industrial animal practice have resulted in food many educated consumers here, and much of the developed world beyond our shores, regard with suspicion. Citizens all over the world are in open revolt against bizarre — and astonishingly misguided genetic alterations of the global food supply by U.S. corporations — bent on twisting the basis of life to keep the high-input intensive monoculture show on the road...."

Towards a Sustainable Agriculture
by Steve Diver
http://www.ru.org/artagri.html

Some articles on Sustainable Agriculture as our goal
http://www.geocities.com/northsheep/

The Quest for Nutrient-Dense Food
High-Brix Farming and Gardening
An Interview with Rex Harrill by Suze Fisher
http://www.westonaprice.org/farming/nutrient-dense.html

Here's a list of other noteworthy articles: http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/articles.htm

The Family Farm is the basic unit for sustainable farming - eco-agriculture, if you like. Joel Salatin is a visionary and powerful spokesman for eco-farming. For a remarkable picture of his highly productive eco-farm read:
Family Friendly Farming — Creating a Farm Life Your Children Will Treasure
by Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface Farm
June 2000

This is an Acrobat file. Download free Adobe Acrobat Reader if you need it.

More words of wisdom from Joel Salatin, for those who argue that bigger is better, that eco-ag can't feed the world.
Balance - Stability for you Life & Farm
by Joel Salatin, April 2002

'Sound Science' is Killing Us
by Joel Salatin, April 2004

Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program (SARE) - University of California
http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/concept.htm - answers the question "What is Sustainable Agriculture?" and gives lots of other basic information.

"Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals--environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity. A variety of philosophies, policies and practices have contributed to these goals...

"Sustainability rests on the principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Therefore, stewardship of both natural and human resources is of prime importance."

Alternative Farming Systems Information Center
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/
Welcome to the Alternative Farming Systems Information Center (AFSIC) at the National Agricultural Library (NAL). We specialize in identifying and accessing information related to alternative agricultural enterprises and crops as well as alternative cropping systems.

Mini-Farms
www.countryfarm-lifestyles.com/Mini-Farms.html
See also Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre, by Brett Markham

Crossroads Resource Center works with communities and their allies to foster democracy and local self-determination

Small Farm Central - build a beautiful farm website in one week. Call 412-567-3864 or email leslie@smallfarmcentral.com

Spin Farming
http://www.spinfarming.com/whatsSpin/
SPIN stands for S-mall P-lot IN-tensive
SPIN is a non-technical, easy-to-learn and inexpensive-to-implement farming system that makes it possible to earn significant income from land bases under an acre in size. Whether you are new to farming, or want to farm in a new way, SPIN can work for you because:

Grow Biointensive - www.growbiointensive.org
Teaching people worldwide to better feed themselves while building and preserving the soil and conserving resources.
Teach yourself the basics.

Federal Sustainable Agriculture Program Primer
http://www.sustainableagriculture.net/ , the Web site of the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. Look under "Our Issues" for the Primer

"As a service to our partners, we are pleased to offer the first draft of a Federal Sustainable Agriculture Program Primer. This resource compiles basic information on a wide range of the programs and policies that the National Campaign and its partner organizations have helped to conceive, develop, promote and/or get funded over the years."

ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
http://attra.ncat.org/

Beginning Farmers http://beginningfarmers.org/
Online resource for farmers, researchers and policy makers

Growing Organic
Information and resources for Developing Sustainable Organic Sectors
www.ifoam.org/growingorganic

The Non-Toxic Farming Handbook, 1998
by Philip A. Wheeler, Ph.D. & Ron Ward

It is not an overstatement to say that this handbook represents the future of farming. Farmers, growers and serious gardeners around the world are discovering that the toxic methods taught for the past 50 years do not work. By sledge-hammering nature into submission, every problem solved brings new problems. Attacking these with another toxic treatment further stresses the balance of nature bringing on a new set of difficulties. But the answer for modern growers is not to turn back the hands of time, but to move forward to a higher level of understanding. Ward and Wheeler understanding.

In this readable, easy to understand handbook the authors explain:
• What's wrong with conventional agriculture.
• Weeds - their role in nature.
• Insects - why they attack crops and how to stop them.
• Soil Testing and analysis - and acting upon the results.
• On-farm methods of soil and plant tissue testing.
• Soil fertility and fertilizers.
• pH, lime, N, P & K, and major and minor nutrients.
• Use of refractometer
•Working with foliar feeds to maximize crop health and production.

The authors successfully integrate the diverse techniques and technologies of classical organic farming.

Other useful gardening/farming books

More books on Eco-Agriculture at Acres U.S.A. website

The Soil Foodweb: It's Importance in Ecosystem Health

A shortcoming of the above book, The Non-Toxic Farming Handbook, it that it does not discuss the recent work of Dr. Elaine Ingham on compost and compost teas, and their use in inoculating the soil and plants with beneficial microorganisms.

http://www.soilfoodweb.com/ is the Web site of her company, Soil Foodweb, Inc., that she has formed to make these complex new techniques available to farmers and gardeners.

"To grow healthy, productive plants you need healthy, productive soil. It is the organisms in the soil that provide the food plants need, in the form they need, when they need it.
At Soil Foodweb, we measure the quality and quantity of these vital organisms and provide guidance in how to build your soil so your soil can build your plants."

Other Web sites dealing with compost tea:

The International Compost Tea Council
The ICTC is a non-profit organization dedicated to the science and integrity of compost tea.”

Compost Tea Industry Association
Created to provide a unified voice and information exchange for this rapidly growing industry

More articles on soil food web and compost tea from Acres U.S.A. (and many other articles)

T&J Enterprises
‘Microbe’ Tea - http://www.tandjenterprises.com
Affordable organic gardening products, and lots of info

Sea Energy Agriculture by Maynard Murray, M.D.
- a remarkable idea using the nutrients of the sea, that is being developed by OceanGrown™ in Florida. Click here for a story from the book.

Sustainable Farming Organizations

The New Farm
Farmer to Farmer Know-How from the Rodale Institute
www.NewFarm.org
Lots of interesting articles, stories, and news here in the world of sustainable agriculture.

The Biodynamic Farming & Gardening Association
http://www.biodynamics.com/
Based on a series of lectures given by Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner in 1924, Biodynamics is a method of agriculture which seeks to actively work with the health-giving forces of nature. It is the oldest non-chemical agricultural movement, predating the organic agriculture movement by some twenty years and has now spread throughout the world.

Sustainable Farming Connection
http://www.ibiblio.org/farming-connection/index.html
Where farmer find and share information

The Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association (OEFFA)
A grassroots coalition of food producers and consumers formed in 1979 to support and promote a healthful, ecological, accountable and permanent agriculture in Ohio and elsewhere.

Innovative Farmers of Ohio - dedicated to the advancement of sustainable agriculture in the State of Ohio

The New Agriculture Network - Farmers, researchers, and educators teeming up for sustainable and organic ag solutions in the Great Lakes Region.

Michael Fields Agricultural Institute - www.michaelfieldsaginst.org
devoted to developing an agriculture that can sustain the land and its resources. As a public, non-profit learning center, we seek to revitalize farming with research, education, technical assistance and public policy.

Don't Panic, Eat Organic - the Organic Grower's homepage

Certification Programs
The USDA Organic certification program is expensive for the small farmer who markets locally, and does not cover all aspects of sustainable eco-agriculture that consumers are looking for, so other certification programs have sprung up. Here are some alternatives:

Certified Naturally Grown, a non-profit alternative eco-labeling program for small farms that grow using USDA Organic methods but are NOT a part of the USDA Certified Organic program.

Certified Humane Raised & Handled
The Certified Humane Raised & Handled Label is a consumer certification and labeling program for farm animals. The farms are not necessarily organic or pasture based.