Dear Neighbors,

Happy spring! We hope you’re finding the time to step outside and relax in the flower-scented embrace of an April afternoon. And as we imagine each of us finding a spot in the sunshine to sit and read for a moment, we’d like to share a wish for this Earth Month.

It’s everywhere—in parks and playgrounds, in cereal and crackers, in 75 percent of rainwater samples taken from midwestern states.

Should the meat, milk, and eggs of the (near) future be created in a lab?

What do strokes, heart attacks, aneurysms, varicose veins, and erectile dysfunction have in common? They are all diseases of the vascular system, the vast network of veins, arteries, and capillaries that run through the body (it puts the vascular in cardiovascular).

“The only possible guarantee of the future is responsible behavior in the present.”
― Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture

GMO. It's just three letters, but when used together, they make a loaded term.

Drop it into a conversation, and you're likely to spark a discussion defined by opposing viewpoints and conflicting information.

Hello, Fall!

Aren’t you a delicious sight! Your bright, crisp air; the way you paint the countryside in vivid color, making us want to ditch our responsibilities and go adventuring; the evening chill that has us dreaming of a crackling fire and a cup of tea… you make us feel so many things. We want to dust off a favorite book and crack it open the old-fashioned way.

“A greater danger to human health than regulators previously thought…”

"To make all of America's waters fishable and swimmable again … and to eliminate all pollution" was the stated goal of the Clean Water Act, passed by Congress in 1972.¹

It’s a small seal carrying a big promise: USDA Certified Organic. Most of us recognize it as a label that pledges better—for human health, animal welfare, and the planet. Yet, some will suggest that’s all it is… promises. So, is there proof? Yes.

Once, in a farmer's field, a billion tiny soil organisms were finally remembered, and the farmer's focus shifted from how much a crop could yield to how future harvests depended on the soil being healed. Once, in a neighborhood grocery store, the proprietors said, no more—our standards for food must place human and environmental health over profit.

According to consumer surveys, more than 80 percent of Americans are concerned about pesticide residue on the foods we eat;^{1 2} yet, how many of us contemplate the consequences for those who grow and harvest our food?