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Grace Gershuny on the evolution of the organic food movement

Learning from History, Going on From Here  (originally published on Grace’s blog, Organic Revolutionary) The world has changed considerably in the forty years since I attended my first NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) Conference–then also billed as a “celebration of rural life.” So too has the organization, which has gone from a marginal little group […]

Teaming with Black activists and microbes for the soul of organic

by Grace Gershuny, [Originally posted at http://www.organic-revolutionary.com/single-post/2017/05/29/Teaming-with-Black-activists-and-microbes-for-the-soul-of-organic] I tend to be a big picture thinker, and have always just assumed that the connections between organic agriculture and social justice were self-evident. Yet clearly many others don’t see this connection, and believe that with the advent of a federally mandated organic certification and marketing program, organic […]

An organic revolutionary in South Korea

by Grace Gershuny Last October I had the opportunity to deliver a talk at a conference in Goesan province, South Korea. The Regional Conference on Marketing & Innovation in Organic Farming was co-sponsored by IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) with the Goesan provincial government. My presentation, co-authored by former IFOAM President Katherine DiMatteo, […]

The organic imperative held hostage

This commentary by ISE faculty and board member Grace Gershuny originally appeared on her author’s blog for Chelsea Green Publishers: “We no longer have the luxury of prevention. Now we are in the dire situation of needing a cure, a reversal. We know that correcting agriculture is an answer to climate chaos, and that it […]

Book Review: Gunnar Rundgren’s “Garden Earth”

Garden Earth: From Hunter and Gatherer to Global Capitalism and Thereafter by Gunnar Rundgren Reviewed by Grace Gershuny Gunnar Rundgren is well known in the international organic community as an articulate leader, consultant, theorist, and practitioner of organic agriculture world wide.  A founder of the influential Swedish organic certification program KRAV, he later became President […]

Grace Gershuny on Ecologizing the Food System

From ISE faculty member and organic pioneer, Grace Gershuny: This is a first installment of an ongoing discussion about Social Ecology and the food system – both why the one we have is so wrong, and how our understanding of the root causes of its failures can inform food system activists and practitioners.  There is […]

Support Food Democracy at Green Mountain College

The fate of a pair of oxen at Green Mountain College’s Cerridwen Farm (Poultney, VT) has attracted national media attention, but not because of the exemplary way the administration at this small college has engaged students in deciding the role of animals in their community food system. Please read the appeal that follows by the […]

Social Ecologist Profile: Grace Gershuny of Barnet, VT USA

Please introduce yourself (What kind of work you do, Where you live, etc.) I live in Barnet, VT – just south of St. Johnsbury, where I’ve lived (with a small lapse) since 1984 in a house that I built with my then husband.  We ran a small market garden for 8 years, and I still […]

Sad news for the organic vision

Note: This piece also appears on the Chelsea Green website: http://chelseagreen.com/blogs/gracegershuny/2011/01/03/sad-news-for-the-organic-vision/ I wrote the passage that follows near the end of 2010, in the midst of working on a chapter about the early history of organic certification and my role in it.  This experience came to mind when I heard about the abrupt dismissal of […]

Conflicts Over Organic Standards

Originally published at: http://chelseagreen.com/blogs/gracegershuny/ Part I – History of organic standard-setting and controversies NOTE: This article was published in the August 2010 issue of The Organic Standard, an international on-line publication aimed at policy makers, certifiers and the organic trade, published by Grolink AB, a Swedish consulting company (www.organicstandard.com). This is the first of a three-part […]