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Hello. We’re starting off 2006 with stories on farm-direct commercial marketing, telling your farm story electronically, coping with avian flu fears and how the first organic ag major in North America came to be.

  • Iowa farmers, assisted by Extension specialists, are opening up high-volume markets for high-quality food in local schools, restaurants and grocery stores.
  • Electronic newsletters are well-loved consumer connections for a new crop of direct-marketing farmers. Blogs are a step beyond for the truly daring.
  • Your outdoor poultry may be as healthy as can be, but public safety concerns about the highly contagious strain of avian flu may bring some sobering choices.
  • Students in Ontario are the first in North America to be studying in an approved organic agriculture major. Read how Guelph University did it.
  • A new biomass-to-hydrogen energy process may provide a charcoal byproduct to really put agriculture on the carbon-sequestration map.
  • Farm auctions are a lot like baseball – lots of fun if you win and always better if you know the rules. George DeVault passes on auction insights from his father.
  • While most of his friends left eastern Senegal for unemployment in France, Abderahmane Sow chose to depart from his family’s merchant tradition and farm.
  • And more…

Read on!
Greg Bowman
Online Editor

p.s. Before any more of 2006 slips away, please log your story requests for the year so our writing helps to expand your world.
     

Fresh today from The New Farm®
   
Healthy birds may not be enough
Pastured poultry producers consider
stark options if bad bird flu hits US.		  
   
The new newsletter
Electronic newsletters and blogs reduce costs and increase customer base for direct-marketing farmers.		    
   
Commercial buyers want local, regional food
Contracts and lower prices may, or may not,
be part of the quest for end-user satisfaction.
    
   
Canada marks an organic milestone
Guelph University’s new major builds on stalwart faculty, supportive farmers and a dean that said “Do it.”		  
   
Tracking the action at farm auctions
There are rules, just like baseball, and you’ll more likely end up a winner if you know them.		    
   
News and research
Farmer-owned restaurant targets Washington, D.C., impact ….Consumer Reports finds value in organics…Foodservice firm wants antibiotic-free birds, helps re-start rBST-free dairy…Organic sales stunted by undersupply.
    
   
Reader Mail
You ask, we answer. Questions from all of you answered by all our expert contacts; from Jeff Moyer, our farm manager, to worm gurus, to other farmers.		    
   
     

at the rodale institute
   
   

sustainable in senegal
Abderahmane Sow, agro-
entrepreneur, Belel, Matam region
Starting from scratch with a knack for business, this new farmer wants to expand agricultural opportunity for young people in his hometown.

  
   
Africare connection will bolster
Institute potential in Africa
The Rodale Institute® and Africare recently forged a partnership to develop farming systems and technologies.		    
   
dr. paul's research perspectives
Regenerative carbon management seems possible
Biomass-based hydrogen production stabilizes carbon that helps grow more crops.
   
     
 
     
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