Organic Ecology Links:
An extensive (although not exhaustive) compendium of relevant and useful organic sites,
further to those mentioned elsewhere in the Organic Ecology site. In an attempt to make this more useful,
we have broken it down into the following categories:
Growers
Mandala Organic Growers are a Europe-wide partnership of growers and distributors. Some insights into why organic people do what they do.
Langridge have been
in the organic business in the UK since the early 1980's. They know what they're
doing.
Sedlescombe Vineyard
have been producing organic sparkling wines, fruit wines, fruit juices and farmhouse
ciders in the UK since 1979, and despite the annoying sound file that they've
got on their homepage (!), the site is interesting and well worth a look. They
even operate a scheme whereby you can work on their farm for a while in exchange
for food and lodgings!
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Distributors
The Essential Trading Co-Operative supplies organic, fair trade and vegetarian foods around the UK and abroad.
Organics Direct is a
fine resource for recipes. Very pleasant site.
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Certifiers
Ecocert is Europe's biggest certifier. Their site concentrates on what they do and who they deal with.
The Soil Association is the UK's biggest certifier, and their site is an excellent resource for all kinds of organic information.
Bio-Dynamic Agricultural Association (Demeter). Certifier with a more holistic outlook than most.
Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association. Irish certifier.
(For a fuller index of UK certifiers, see here.)
Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. Some interesting justifications for organic food.
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Research
The Henry Doubleday Research Association
is a useful resource for organic gardening and general information. Also information on their seed library and research topics.
The Institute of Organic Agriculture at the University of Bonn's English-language site, with details of their research projects and a link page for other (English-language) websites.
The Welsh Institute of Rural Studies' Organic Farming and Agro-ecology with an introduction to organics and details of research. Many useful stats on organic farming in Europe.
Cornell Composting. Cornell University's excellent compost resource, full of science, tips and miscellany. The section on weird and unusual composting is great fun.
Elm Farm Research Centre. Berkshire-based organic farm devoted to organic research. Some useful stats and articles, although much remains under construction.
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Gardening
Allexperts.com supplies on-line answers to your questions. It's like Gardener's Question Time, but with an organic focus and without the sycophantic audience.
Gardening as an Anarchist Plot. Plenty of organic gardening hints, as well as associated ecological things - how to build a solar generator, anyone?
Organic Farming is a slightly misleading title - it concentrates on gardening, and particularly on compost. It does that well, though.
Organic Method Information
Resource. A series of book reviews and a specialized e-column on Nitrogen
fixation are the highlights of this site.
GardenWeb Organic Gardening forum - an
opportunity to have your questions answered by those with similar interests. Even better, why
not solve someone else's problem?!
Organic Gardening magazine. Practicalities and philosophy of organic gardening. Good resource.
Organic Growing. A good guide to growing organic things, with particular emphasis on crop rotation and complementary planting. One of the best resources of its kind.
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Lifestyle
www.positivehealth.com - home of the Positive Health
magazine, this is a repository of articles and information covering nearly all aspects of a healthy
lifestyle from food through to meditation.
Green People - a lifestyle site, which goes beyond food to include
such oddities as organic sun cream and toothpaste. Again, online ordering is possible.
Organic Pathways covers the whole organic lifestyle, including how to use the zodiac to assist your organic
gardening. Based in New Zealand, but still of interest despite its inevitable NZ-centricity.
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Links
The Organic Picnic was an event promoting organics sponsored by Greenpeace and the Soil Association. This is their selection of links.
The webdirectory is "The World's Biggest Environmental Search Engine", although quite how much of an accolade that is is arguable. In any case, here's what it churns out for organic farming.
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Miscellaneous
Organic Information at the Institute
of Food Science & Technology. A Great article about the state of play of the
Organic Industry, looking at regulations around the world, and customer attitudes
to Organic produce.
Organic Agriculture at FAO (Food and
Agriculture Organization), a subdivision of the UN. A recently-launched site,
with some good links and resources. One to watch.
The full text of The Organic Food and Farming Targets Bill. A long read, but essential for those requiring in-depth information.
SANET-mg Discussion Group - sustainable
agriculture rather than specifically organic, this is an invaluable resource for news and views. Part of the
wider SANET site, which is also useful.
organicfood.co.uk is
an organic lifestyle magazine with an extensive section on herbal remedies. Also
contains details of retail outlets and box schemes, and occasional interviews.
Ridgways - a vendor of organic and ethically-grown tea. Make a difference during your tea breaks!
On the Eighth Day Co-operative - a vegetarian organic
café and shop founded in Manchester in 1970, which gives an insight into the minds of people who
really care about food. Hence the impressive selection of recipes!
David's Organic Forum - a discussion
area about organic food and cultivation (based in Australia). Not exactly buzzing with activity,
but worth a look to see what other people are interested in in the organic sphere.
Ecover supply ecologically sound
cleaning products. So if you spill your organic food all over your brand new carpet,
you know where to go to clean it up although there are currently no UK stockists
:-(
The Green Stationery Company are suppliers of green
office supplies and this site has a wealth of information about how your office can be made more
ecologically sound.
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