“Perched on a California cliff high above the Pacific surf, with whales spouting offshore, the Esalen Institute beckons to those seeking physical and spiritual betterment. But for a week in January, it served as Mount Olympus for two dozen organic farmers. It was an organic summit of ‘agrarian elders’ convened by farmers Michael Abelman and Eliot Coleman . . . . These were the farmers who’d launched a movement, gained decades of wisdom and supported their families well. . . . Most were from non-agrarian backgrounds, but their stories trace the arc of organic farming’s history, from idealistic beginnings through years of insanely hard work to the takeover by industry and the current threat to diversity by GMO patents on seeds.” Read the full article here.
