[OKC] FW: ATTENTION: AGRICULTURE or BUSINESS EDITOR FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Report Looks at Past and Future of Organic Farming

[Shauna Lawyer Struby]

From: Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Inc.
[mailto:mailbox at kerrcenter.com] 
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 11:12 AM
To: 'Maura McDermott Kerr Center'; Louise Garvin
Cc: 'Wylie Harris'; mzoeller at kerrcenter.com
Subject: ATTENTION: AGRICULTURE or BUSINESS EDITOR FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Report Looks at Past and Future of Organic Farming

 


PRESS RELEASE    May 17, 2010


Kerr Center, PO Box 588, Poteau, OK 74953 918.647.9123
mailbox at kerrcenter.com Press releases are online at www.kerrcenter.com
<http://www.kerrcenter.com/>   Kerr Center is a non-profit educational
foundation. Contact: Maura McDermott, 918.231.0328 or
<mailto:maura at oklatel.net>  mauramcdermot.kerrcenter at ecewb.com ATTENTION:
AGRICULTURE or BUSINESS EDITOR  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE USE UNTIL JUNE 31

 


Report Looks at Past and Future of Organic Farming 


Organic food sales are booming, even through the recent recession.  But the
meaning and origin of the USDA-certified organic label remain a mystery to
many Americans.  

 

A new, free online publication, "A Brief Overview of the History and
Philosophy of Organic Agriculture," from an Oklahoma non-profit foundation
can help fill that knowledge gap.

 

The report offers valuable background for anyone seeking to understand the
past - or potential future - of organic food, farming, and regulation.

 

 "To better understand today's organic phenomenon, it helps to know the
origins of organic agriculture and its evolution to the present," says
George Kuepper of the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture. 

 

Kuepper specializes in organic farming research at the center's farm and
ranch near Poteau.

 

Early organic farmers, he writes, attempted "to reverse the perennial
problems of agriculture - erosion, soil depletion, decline of crop
varieties, low quality food and livestock feed, and rural poverty."

 

These organic pioneers believed that a nation's health depends on the
long-term vitality of its soil, he says.

 

The report traces some of the practices associated with today's organic
farming back for thousands of years.  Some have appeared under different
names, like "convertible husbandry" and "humus farming," with the term
"organic" only coming into use around 1940.

 

The report addresses common questions about the relationships between
organic food and farming, health, pests, and genetic engineering.

 

It reviews the scientific research that gradually built organic farming's
credibility with academia and government, aiding the development of today's
federal organic standards.

 

The report is available free from the Kerr Center website,
www.kerrcenter.com <http://www.kerrcenter.com/> , along with a wide
selection of other resources on organic farming and sustainable agriculture.

Printed copies are available free by calling the center at 918.647.9123.

 

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