Rootstown Organic

Teach A Man To Fish

									ooo
								One Ohio farmer hopes to use his organic farm as a teaching tool for students and “wannabe” organic farmers.

The
Teacher

The
Student

Organic
Farming

Organic
Gardening

Organic
Ohio

In Rootstown, Ohio, there is a small white house surrounded by new housing developments. The house looks old compared to the new model across the street. You might think an old man lives there, too stubborn to sell his home to developers, even though the laminate siding and cement driveways seem more appealing than the chipping white paint and mud.

Behind the white farmhouse, past the puddle of mud, melting snow and tangled hose there is a hoop house filled with classical music.

Inside, Ameris McPlatt, Rootstown Organic Farm's only employee for the winter months, is planting new greens in a row.

Heavily aligned with technological developments of the 1860’s, the first agricultural revolution saw the rise of machinery in farming.

Its impact on production changed agriculture in the United States of America, with farmers progressing from feeding few to feeding many.

Organic gardeners rely on 'black gold'-- no not petroleum, but compost.

Compost is created by little natural micro-organisms eating up and digesting materials they can convert into nutrient rich humus, that looks like a dark black soil and is coined 'black gold'.

Ohio ranks 8th in the nation for the quantity of certified organic farms with 547 and Northeast Ohio is no exception.

Not all organic farms are plants farms though.

There are 131 organic farms in Ohio with livestock and poultry.