CSA NOTEBOOK: Mariquita Farm, Watsonville, CA
From money pit to economic provider for a farm family and its employees ... in just 4 years! Julia Wiley of Mariquita Farm says that to run a CSA successfully, you have to grow well. That’s a given. But you also have to know how to nurture a whole human community. Here’s the story of how their CSA began.

The black spanish radishes pictured at right were boxed for CSA members just last week.

CSA Notebook

Hoophouse, Part 2

Letter from New York
What is the true wealth of the organic movement?

The people, of course, says New York farmer Mary-Howell Marten. They come with different skills, backgrounds, motivations, ages and educational levels, yet all feel the joy and excitement of living at the heart of a burgeoning, world-changing movement.

Letter from NY

ONE FARM TO ANOTHER

Four inches of snow on the ground, and chomping at the bit: Rodale Institute farm manager Jeff Moyer chats about a new variety of hairy vetch that failed, a bit of erosion that needs repair, and a desperate desire to get out in the fields, already.

Jeff Moyer

GLEANINGS
Working together to remake and retake rural America

Mark Ritchie of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy argues for a collaboration that will reverse the losses of the past and bring the best and brightest to our rural areas.

Mark Ritchie

Food irradiation

Successful email campaigns!

Thanks to the efforts of New Farm readers and other concerned organic supporters, we have good news to report on two of our latest action alerts:

• The Senate has repealed a rider that would have allowed organic livestock producers to feed their organic animals conventional feed and still label the meat, dairy and eggs as "USDA Certified Organic."
• The USDA is reviewing its meat marketing standards after getting a flood of mail arguing that meet marketing claims as currently written would mislead consumers.

Campaign successes