2021 has been a doozy, but no matter how much bad news we are bombarded with, there is always good news to be found. As we draw closer to the end of this year, we’d like to celebrate research published throughout the past year that highlights the benefits of organic food and agriculture.

Ode To The Fourth Thursday In November:

May you wake us up gently, not in a rush of panic, tumbling into the kitchen already behind schedule. We want to open sleepy eyelids to the smell of freshly brewed coffee or perhaps a steaming cup of tea.

In 2016, professionals from prestigious universities and advocacy organizations across the U.S., the U.K., and Canada published a consensus statement of concern about the human health and environmental risks associated with glyphosate-based herbicides.¹ Yet, glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup, remains the most used herbicide in the world.

As the apocalyptic red skies of fire season and the extremes of drought and flooding become increasingly commonplace, life as we know it is being threatened, and one industry in which we are seeing the real-time effects is agriculture.

Once upon a time, before Keto and Paleo and Non-GMO, before Earth Day and USDA Certified Organic, Margaret and Philip Isely were knocking on doors and lending out books on nutrition. They were passionate people, people whose values were rooted in something they actively believed in, something they lived.

“Right here in America is one of the world’s most threatened natural systems. The Northern Great Plains is as important as the Amazon or Arctic, and deserves our attention.” –Martha Kauffman, Managing Director, Northern Great Plains

It's grilling season, and there's one crop that dominates the menu, even when we're not serving it on the cob. Burgers and brats, salad dressing and barbecue sauce, sodas, and alcoholic beverages, they all have this in common: corn.^{1 2}

How much does your daily hygiene routine have to do with the quality of the air you breathe? More than you may think. “We all have a personal plume,” or a trail of chemicals we leave in our wake as we go about the day, according to Matthew Coggon, scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and lead author of a recent study on urban emission patterns.

I always get to where I am going by walking away from where I have been.” —Winnie the Pooh

Soil health, biodiversity, and a resilient economy are each vital elements for sustaining human life on this planet, and they also benefit significantly from the organic approach to farming. Let's take a trip around the world to explore recent organic research.

The last five months have been... HARD. For most of us, living through a pandemic is a first, and as with all “firsts,” we’re trying to figure out how to navigate this new world, and it’s been a challenge. But what if we shifted our perspective to one of gratitude, and looked to the pandemic as a teacher? It’s taught us how to be helpful neighbors. It’s taught us the importance of community.

Thirty-five times smaller than a grain of sand, you can't see the microscopic particles that penetrate deep into your lungs and can enter your bloodstream, with potentially lethal outcomes.¹ Where do you encounter them? On the street. At the park. In your backyard. Wherever you breathe, and they congregate.