This was published in The Land earlier this year. - Tim By Tim King The Land Correspondent Kutztown, PA, Rodale Institute, which is headquartered on its seventy year old 333 acre research and education farm near here, has opened its Organic Crop Consulting Services based at its Rodale Institute Midwest Organic Center near Marion Iowa. The Land talked to Dr. Andrew Smith, Rodale’s Chief Scientist and Chief Operating Officer, about Rodale’s expanded services in Iowa and about organic and regenerative agriculture in general. Smith is a former organic farmer and Peace Corps volunteer. The Land: Can you tell me about the Rodale Institute? Smith: We are a nonprofit research and education institution, in operation since 1947, headquartered on our farm near Kutztown Pennsylvania. We also operate six other sites in Pennsylvania, Iowa, Georgia, and California. Rodale Institute aims to grow the regenerative organic movement through research, farmer training, and consumer education. On our si
It’s been a fairly dry spring. The only signifiant rain that has fallen came pretty much all at once early in April. Over four days nearly four inches fell. During that time the Long Prairie River almost reached flood stage and then went back to normal. It seems that heavy rainfall over short periods, followed by flooding that quickly recedes, is becoming normal. In the last few years more and more rainfall has come to us in big storms of two, three, and four inches at a time. Rainfall like that hardly ever happened when we were kids. Of course kids aren’t going to believe old-timers when we say that it rains a lot harder than it used to. But, it turns out, there’s plenty of data to back up old timers claims about more intense rainfall. In fact, extreme precipitation has increased in nearly every region of the United States since the start of the 20th century, according to the Fourth National Climate Assessment. Those extreme precipitation events have increased more in Minnesota,