All About Organics

Dana Geffner, Executive Director of Fair World Project and a Regenerative Organic Alliance Board Member, shares her thoughts about how social fairness forms a foundational pillar of the Regenerative Organic Certification.

A controversial federal law to promote and protect native corn was approved recently by the Senate, ending the possibility of what one supporter calls the “intellectual plundering” of indigenous communities.

Last weekend, Kristin Davey received an unexpected shock upon entering her local nursery in Sebastopol, California, north of San Francisco. “The shelves were picked over. The vegetable starts were almost gone. And the seed racks were completely bare,” she said, “I’ve been going to nurseries for 15 years and I have never seen them so empty."

Multiple studies indicate that getting our hands in the soil and helping plants grow improves longevity and health, as well our mental well-being. Researchers in the Netherlands gave a test group a 30-minute stressful activity and then randomly assigned them to garden outside or read a book indoors. The study found that both activities reduced the cortisol levels that trigger stress, but the people who gardened saw much lower cortisol levels and their positive mood restored, as opposed to the readers, whose moods got worse.