Hello. Winter meetings that farmers plan for other farmers concentrate more good ideas in one weekend than about any event going. The more years you gather with your regional peers, however, the more relationships you have to nurture, setting up the awful/wonderful choice between necessary conversations and learning new innovations.

We pulled ourselves away to attend two events that were rich with practical applications, enthusiastic farmers of all ages and evidence that regenerative farming is alive and kicking like never before.

Three examples: If you’re good at growing flowers but don’t like farmers’ markets, Oklahoma’s Vicki Stamback has a relationship-based wholesale approach worth studying. If your local farmers’ market has supporters who want to grow its potential, ponder the dynamic work being done in Cleveland to create high-impact farmer opportunities. And check out what a Midwestern organic group did to honor one of its own, with some help from The Rodale Institute.

The Rodale Institute research: We frequently get asked about the Institute’s healthy soil research and the hard data that backs up our claims that organic agriculture is better in so many ways. We’ve put up a permanent link on our homepage to give you easy access to our peer-reviewed research papers and other publications. Just click on the TRI RESEARCH in the homepage sidebar, and you’ll be linked to a list of publications and abstracts, organized by date. Most of the titles are available through The Rodale Institute bookstore.

Forum reform: In response to reader frustration over an increased level of auto-spam in our forums, we've gone back to requiring user registration. We hope folks don't find this too much of a hassle and that it alleviates the problem.

Read on!
Greg Bowman
Online Editor

p.s. Between prepping the planter, seeding your flats, and watching for the first day of grazing, send us the most important insight that came to you this winter – before it slips into that great mental compost pile at the back of your brain.

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