page_title: The Rodale Institute
section_title: Current programs and experiments
hierarchical_section_title: The Rodale Institute / Current programs and experiments
caption_attribution_description: English: Test Garden (Organic Gardening) at Rodale Institute (Siegfried's Dale Farm), Maxatawny Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania.
context_page_description: Rodale Institute is an American 501 nonprofit that supports research into organic farming. The Institute was founded in 1947 by entrepreneur J.I. Rodale in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. When J.I. Rodale died in 1971, his son Robert purchased 333 acres and moved the farm to its current site in Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
  Rodale Institute uses a long-term, side-by-side research trial model to compare organic and conventional agriculture. Its longest running experiment, the Farming Systems Trial, has been running since 1981 and compares organic and conventional corn, soybeans, and other grains. The Institute also researches the effects of growing food without chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers on human health, water quality, climate change, and more.
  Collaborations with farmers and agricultural science peers throughout Pennsylvania and Maryland, as well as nationally and internationally, enable Institute researchers to replicate experiments across different geographical regions and benefit farmers with opportunities to test new approaches to organic production.
context_section_description: The Rodale Institute conducts research that seeks to improve the viability, productivity and documented ecological services of organic farming using current agricultural technologies and practices.
  Focusing on agronomic (and some horticultural) cropping systems, research trials examine organic and conventional practices, chemical-free weed-management techniques, weed- and disease-resistant crop varieties, compost management and application, soil health, no-till organic planting systems using cover crops and optimal cover-crop uses in organic crop rotations.
  An important part of the Rodale Institute's research has been the ongoing Farming Systems Trial (FST). Begun in 1981, the FST compares two organic farming systems—manure-based and legume-based approaches—to conventional farming methods, defined as methods using Cooperative Extension-prescribed chemical and tillage inputs. 
  FST found that after fields undergo a multi-year transition period to restore biological activity, organic yields are comparable to those of conventional systems. Additionally, organic yields exceed those of conventional systems in years of drought and other stress. Furthermore, organic systems have the capacity to sequester significant amounts of carbon.
  Current experiments also pursue improvements in no-tillage and minimum tillage systems with the use of Rodale's "no-till roller/crimper" device created by Jeff Moyer. The device simultaneously rolls and crimps a cover crop, forming a mulch layer into which a cash crop can be planted in the same pass with a special no-till planter.
  No-till systems with cover crops can contribute to carbon sequestration by adding to and preserving organic matter (57% carbon by weight) in the soil, an important component of the institute's goal to link organic agriculture with the campaign to mitigate global warming.
  Other experiments focus on biological pest controls, the use of mychorrhizal fungi – hosted by root systems in a symbiotic relationship – to amplify crops' abilities to uptake nutrients, and time-sensitive planting to avoid insect cycles and maximize the use of growing degree day(s).
caption: A test garden at the Rodale Institute
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