Faculty member's book chronicles new movement

Looking for ways to help resolve the many plights of today's American farmer, an SIUC researcher has uncovered the roots of contemporary organic farming movement.

Getting back to nature -- Associate professor Leslie A. Duram's new book, “Good Growing: Why Organic Farming Works,” looks at the numerous benefits of switching from conventional farming.

Leslie A. Duram believes that organic farming might hold the key for many farm families burdened by skyrocketing fuel and fertilizer costs and unsure whether they, or their children, will be able to earn a living from an occupation they have enjoyed.

Duram is chair and associate professor of SIUC's geography and environmental resources department in the College of Liberal Arts.

Having grown up in Kansas where farm issues regularly crept into conversations, Duram found herself agonizing over farmers' dashed hopes and despair.

"Literally, every one of them had very depressing views of conventional agriculture and they wanted out," remembers Duram. "I just kept thinking, there's got to be a better way,"

She spooled up her academic research skills in search of solutions -- and uncovered the roots of contemporary organic farming movement.

"I tried to focus on medium scale organic farms representative of conventional farms in the region. I was really interested in looking at a true transition in agriculture. How can we really take a step from conventional to organic farming on the larger scale so we could stop this bloodletting of farmers having to leave the land and stop rural communities from going under," says Duram, whose findings are the fodder of the new book "Good Growing: Why Organic Farming Works."

The book, which Duram admits takes an "advocacy" tone, is volume 17 in the University of Nebraska Press' "Our Sustainable Future Series," available at bisonbooks.com.

In addition to a wealth of background information, the book chronicles five successful medium-scale family farms in different and distinct regions of the country where relatively natural farming techniques have earned the U.S. government's stamp of approval to call themselves "certified organic" growers and producers.

"These organic farmers have a completely positive view of agriculture. They want to be in it, they see a future for themselves and they want their families to run the farms, too."

Such stories, Duram hopes, may inspire traditional farmers eager to hop off the never-ending "treadmill of production" -- where it constantly takes more of everything to make it -- yet still yearn to work the land.

Opportunity abounds, she says. The sales of organically grown foods and meats have risen 20 percent annually since the 1980s.

Cultivated along with the organic edibles are healthier families, cleaner streams and aquifers, naturally enhanced soils and revitalized rural communities.

-- Paula M. Davenport