A Forty-Year Collection Of Organic History Documents…
A Personal Invitation from Roger Blobaum
Welcome to my organic farming website! I invite you to explore these historic materials that describe and document my involvement, and the involvement of many others, in the evolution of the organic and sustainable agriculture movement.
A chance visit in 1971 to an organic crop and livestock farm near Grinnell, Iowa, was the life-changing experience that led me to decide to make organic farming my main professional interest and personal passion. It inspired me to choose work and public service advocacy that would help build support and respect for environmentally sound farming. And it led to my early decision to save documents and other materials I felt might have historic significance later.
These documents and materials were saved during 40 years of work as an independent agricultural consultant and as an active participant in more than 35 state, regional, national, and international nonprofit organizations. The issues addressed include preservation of agricultural land, solar and other alternative sources of farm energy, organic farming research, development of national and international organic standards and guidelines, state corporate farming laws, organic integrity, and international organic accreditation.
This website, brought to you as a public service, contains a carefully chosen sample drawn from the much larger collection I am donating to the Wisconsin Historical Society. Along with contributions from many others, these documents and materials will be part of an archived national collection that tells the fascinating story of the organic and sustainable agriculture movement. This initiative has been made possible by the generous support of The Ceres Trust a privately-administered charitable trust based in the Midwest.
The development of this website would not have been possible without the organizational skill and organic farming expertise of Atina Diffley, who conceptualized and designed the site and organized the huge amount of historic material selected. Her excellent work enables me to share this fascinating organic and sustainable agriculture movement history with you.
WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY: ORGANIC AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE COLLECTION
In 2012, with the support of the Ceres Trust, the Wisconsin Historical Society Organic and Sustainable Agriculture Collection was established to document other organic and sustainable farming pioneers, many of whom either began farming or embarked on careers supporting this approach to farming in the 1970s.
Key collecting areas within organic and sustainable agriculture include leaders and pioneers in the organic and sustainable agriculture movement; pioneering national organic agriculture organizations and development of the organic agriculture infrastructure; organizations that promote and assist organic agriculture; organic certification organizations and the standards development process; input companies that develop, sell, and distribute seeds, organic fertilizer, and other requirements for organic agriculture production; organic agriculture farmers and farmer cooperatives; organic agriculture sales and marketing enterprises including restaurants using and promoting organic and locally sourced ingredients; and local and alternative agricultural distribution including direct sales, CSAs, farmers’ markets, urban farming, and food cooperatives and warehouses.