Anneliese Abbott
Before Organic: Ehrenfried Pfeiffer and Biodynamics in the United States
Beginning in the 1950s, J.I. Rodale started writing historical accounts about how he started Organic Gardening magazine. He always told...
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History of Organic Farming in America
By Anneliese Abbott
Organic History
Blog
Anneliese Abbott
- Feb 15
- 2 min
The Other Strand of Organic History: Why Biodynamics Is Important
I have a confession to make. In all of my earlier articles about the history of organic farming, I left out one critically important...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Jan 11
- 2 min
"Nature's Acres": Misrepresentation of Research on Organic Yields
Beginning in 1950, soil scientists and agronomists began to claim that organic farming couldn’t feed the world. Surprisingly, they did...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Jan 4
- 3 min
Bigger Than Conventional: Organic Yields from the 1950s to 1970s
Agronomists in the mid-20th century who claimed that organic farming had lower yields never read Organic Gardening magazine. Beginning in...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Dec 14, 2023
- 2 min
No Peace on Earth: Why Agronomy Can't Feed the World
It’s not something the agronomists who talk about “feeding the world” usually mention, but most of the starvation that happened in the...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Dec 7, 2023
- 2 min
2.5 Acres Per Person: Can Organic Farming Feed the World?
“We can go back to organic agriculture in this country if we must—we once farmed that way 75 years ago. We know how to do it. However,...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Nov 6, 2023
- 2 min
Marriage of East and West: The Real Cultural Roots of Organic Farming
If the main influences of modern organic farming didn’t come from African or Indigenous American culture, where did they come from? The...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Oct 30, 2023
- 2 min
The Antithesis of Organic: Where Reductionism Could Lead
Modern organic farming did not develop in a vacuum. It started in a specific time and place—England in the 1930s. And it was developed as...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Oct 23, 2023
- 2 min
Did George Washington Carver Invent Organic Farming?
The second most frequent question that I am often asked is, “Didn’t George Washington Carver invent organic farming?” It’s an intriguing...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Oct 9, 2023
- 2 min
What About Indigenous Agriculture?
When I first started collecting oral histories in 2021, one of the most frequent questions I received was, “Why aren’t you writing about...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Aug 31, 2023
- 2 min
The Early Organic Canon: Books That Shaped Organic Farming
When organic farming came to the United States, it came in books. As far as I am aware, none of the early British organic leaders made it...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Aug 3, 2023
- 3 min
Organic Camping: Vacationing on Organic Farms in the 1960s
Where did organic farmers go on vacation in the 1960s? To other organic farms! Beginning in 1955, Rodale Press began publishing an annual...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Jul 20, 2023
- 2 min
What Does "Organic" Mean?
Most historians credit the British plant scientist Sir Albert Howard with first developing the system that we now call organic farming....
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Anneliese Abbott
- Jul 8, 2023
- 2 min
Didn't all agriculture used to be organic?
“But didn’t all agriculture used to be organic?” That’s the number one question that I get when I tell people that I am doing research on...
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Anneliese Abbott
- Jul 5, 2023
- 2 min
Welcome to the History of Organic Farming website!
Welcome to the first-ever blog post on my new History of Organic Farming in America website! I’ve been researching the history of organic...
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