Hello, [name]. Tool time: Can you imagine farming without tools? Not that there’s anything wrong with hunting and gathering, but tools make the farmer like clothes make the man. That’s why we’ve been adding to the New Farm toolkit and sharpening and oiling our old standbys in order to give you all the resources you need to farm successfully and sustainably.

We know that you are coming into a season when you’ll have a bit more time for planning what comes next as you take a well-deserved break from doing what comes naturally, so we put together this special newsletter highlighting some of our additions and improvements to help you dream and plan. As the steel comes off the field and shorter days give way to longer and cooler nights, stoke up the fire, get comfortable in your computer chair, and open the virtual barn doors to a wealth of information.

Enjoy!
Dan Sullivan, Senior Editor

Classified information
Okay, we admit that we may harbor a little bias, but we can’t recall seeing such a cool and consolidated assortment of farm-related stuff—including tools, livestock products, farmland and farming opportunities—being offered and asked for anywhere quite like what’s being posted on the New Farm Classifieds. It’s sort of Green Acres’ Mr. Haney meets Slow Food Nation. Check it out…and place your free ad.

Classifieds

May the resource be with you
The New Farm Resource Directory, your easily searchable guide to the best web sites, organizations, and publications promoting organic and sustainable agriculture and local food systems is growing by leaps and bounds every day. If you have a suggestion for a listing, please send it to Dan Sullivan, senior editor

Sometimes bigger is better
We're all for diversifying, and sometimes that means expanding. After two years of collecting and comparing organic and conventional product prices from one east-coast and one west-coast terminal market, we've decided it is time for The New Farm Organic Price Index (OPX) to grow. Not only can you access even more markets--now totaling 11--you can browse the markets and the products easily. And, we've got actual selling-prices for grains in four markets, not just asking prices. You've got to use it to believe it--Visit the OPX now.

Grassroots doesn't mean backwoods
The Grassroots OPX—a weekly update featuring retail prices for local, heirloom and organic products from producer-only farmers' markets—just got a makeover. No more wading through products or markets you're not interested in. Now you can customize the information you see to suit your needs--look at the price of squash across the country, check out all the products being sold at your local market or compare apples in New York and Washington. Visit the Grassroots OPX. Don't see a market you think should be listed? Have a great winter market that could use some extra press? Join our team of volunteer reporters for this season or next and put your market on the map.

Fayetteville Farmers' Market, Arkansas

The New Farm Organic Price Index (OPX)

Grassroots OPX

Roll on organic no-till
This week’s Ask Jeff question and answer forum and One Farm to Another column both feature an innovative tool invented right here at The Rodale Institute. The Institute's cover crop roller is integral to a grant recently awarded by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to test the Institute’s organic Jeff Moyer, our farm manager, farms across the country. Jeff has been swamped with emails since inviting farmers in seven U.S. regions where conventional no-till is most widely practiced to participate in this grand experiment—some from farmers requesting to get on board, others simply offering encouragement and sharing their own experiences.

Rodale Institute cover crop roller

One Farmer to Another

Ask Jeff

...the latest in organic news. New this week, a UK grocer is introducing U-pick lettuce, a mini-lettuce plant customers can place in their window sill, allowing them to harvest their own farm fresh salads anytime. At the recent World Food Day, speakers proclaimed that it would not be conventional commodities but rather biodiversity that would be the end to world hunger. On the home front, congratulations are in order to the National Organic Standards Board, which has won clarification on organic milk and two other standards from the U.S. Department of Agriculture). New Farm would also like to take this time to congratulate Jim Riddle on his recent election to NOSB chair. Jim has been a great resource to New Farm for the past two years, and he continues to share his expertise with readers in his columns, Organics in the News and Inspectors Notebook.

For a complete listing of this week’s news, visit The New Farm home page

Research Update:

The Great Pumpkin. Pumpkins and zucchinis have the ability to remove DDT from soil, a chemist at the Royal Military College of Canada has found.

Pick-your-own lettuce straight from your grocer's shelf

Biodiversity for food security theme of World Food Day

Organic standards for milk, produce clarified

Riddle elected chair of National Organic Standards Board

Pumpkins can clean up toxic soils