Organic Farming Research Foundation -- Community

Community

Advocacy Community

OFRF Executive Director
Bob Scowcroft Announces
Plans to Step Down

OFRF Executive Director Bob Scowcroft has outlined plans to retire early next year. At 59, Scowcroft says it is time to turn over the reins of the organization to new leadership. Scowcroft helped co-found OFRF in 1990 and has served as its only executive director. In a letter announcing the pending change, OFRF Board President Deirdre Birmingham praised Scowcroft’s work to advance organic agriculture. She said the organization has long known of Scowcroft’s intentions and is ready with a transition plan that will bring a new executive to OFRF in early 2011. More»

Organic farmer and longtime Organic Farming Research Foundation Senior Policy Analyst Mark Lipson has accepted an important new post at the United States Department of Agriculture. Hhis new position at USDA as a program specialist for organic farming means his strength in farm policy will be widely applied to advancing organic agriculture. More»

Research Community

Scott Hoffman Black, director of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, eloquently conveys the value of native pollinators on farms and in backyard landscapes. At last winter's Ecological Farming Conference in Pacific Grove, California, Hoffman Black presented the results of an OFRF-funded project that helps organic farmers conserve native bee habitat and attract native pollinator services to their farms. He also shared how we all can incorporate habitat for native pollinators in our landscapes. More»

image of Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer in field

Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer is a PhD candidate at UC-Berkeley studying the landscape ecology of pest control. She recently completed an OFRF-funded project investigating the habitat requirements of syrphid flies and the net pest management effects in organic broccoli fields on California's Central Coast.

In a recent interview with OFRF's Ted Quaday, Chaplin-Kramer discusses her approach to helping organic farmers find non-toxic ways to manage insect pests. More»

OFRF recognized Eric Brennan for his pioneering organic research at our annual Fall Organic Harvest Benefit Reception and Dinner in San Francisco.

Brennan is an OFRF research grant recipient, and he says the Santa Cruz-based foundation played a key role in moving his initial research forward. More»

Books, Arts and Culture

Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness
by Lisa Hamilton

Journalist and photographer Hamilton presents a multicultural snapshot of the American sustainable agriculture movement, profiling a Texas dairyman, a New Mexican rancher and a North Dakotan farmer, all who have converted from conventional to sustainable agriculture for economic and personal reasons...The book vividly shows how these stubborn individualists rooted in the soil struggle are forging a path away from monolithic agribusiness to sustainable agriculture for its promise of spiritual integrity, community and food security. --Publishers Weekly

U.S. Organic Maps

Using the USDA's National Organic Program database of organic operations, these maps show organic farm locations (represented as black dots). The current map is based on data for 2006.

The community of U.S. organic operations:

distribution of organic operations in US

You can also view this map with Google Earth. USOrganicOperation.kmz
If you don't have Google earth, you can download it for free here.

New Maps! Now view additional maps on our US Organic Maps page, including:

Number of organic acres, by state
Percentage of crops farmed organically, by state

Community

OFRF's pages about the community of people who support organic farming and sustainable food systems.