Summary
Coordinator: Jack Kittredge, Natural Organic Farming Association / Massachusetts, Barre, MA
Stakeholders: Beginning and hopeful farmers, farmers interested in converting to organic, and organic growers looking for a better way to deal with problems.
NOFA/Mass proposes to publish over 100 online searchable articles on 12 topics relating to organic production and marketing. The topics are:
- Raising Organic Cucurbits
- Growing Organic Potatoes
- Organic Minor Fruit
- Climate Change and Organic Farming
- Labor on Organic Farms
- Manure and Organic Farming
- Internet Marketing of Organic Crops
- Organic Winter Production and Sales
- Organic Mulches
- Building Organic Soil
- Nutrient Density in Organic Crops, and
- Organic Animal Feeds
Articles will be drawn from recent back issues of The Natural Farmer (TNF), the quarterly publication of the seven-state Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA). Each issue contains articles focused on a particular topic relevant to organic farmers. Many are written by university professors or extension personnel, and many are written by organic farmers. Some are features on farmers whose work is illustrative of the topic.
Although the TNF is an award-winning journal (winning the “Spirit of Organic” award in 2009 from New Hope Natural Media), there has been no way until now for non-subscribers to access the wealth of information it contains. NOFA/Mass proposes to convert each article to web format and include the many illustrations which originally appeared with it, to NOFA’s website. The resulting resource will, for a modest price, provide a distinguished library of articles of interest to organic farmers and farmers considering transition.
If this project is successful, The Natural Farmer plans to continue conversion and posting of future issues out of revenue earned by the paper each issue.