Rodale Institute

Rodale Institute is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports research into organic farming.

Rodale Institute was founded in 1947 by author J.I. Rodale in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. When he died in 1971, his son Robert purchased 333 acres and moved the farm to its current site in Kutztown, Pennsylvania.

Strongly influenced by the writings of Sir Albert Howard, J.I. Rodale became the force behind organic farming’s mainstream popularization and birth as a social movement in the United States. His enthusiasm took on almost missionary zeal, as in 1942 he began publishing his views and practical advice in his startup magazine, Organic Farming and Gardening. Throughout the magazine’s pages, he avidly promoted a holistic, whole-systems approach to agriculture.

J.I. Rodale died in 1971 at the age of 72. His son Robert (Bob) Rodale expanded his father’s agriculture- and health-related pursuits with the purchase of a worn-out farm, located east of Kutztown, Pennsylvania, where he and Ardath, his wife, established what is now the Rodale Institute to begin an era of regenerative, organic farm-scale research. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and known as the Siegfried's Dale Farm.

Regeneration was a concept Rodale developed to propose that any natural system, properly managed, could be productive while increasing its capacity into the future. He wrote that regenerative organic farming, done well, can use its own internal resources to improve soil fertility and productivity over time on a specific farm, rather than relying on expensive—and potentially environmentally damaging—outside chemical inputs.

Bob Rodale died in a 1990 automobile accident in Moscow while launching a Russian edition of Rodale’s New Farm magazine. John Haberern, who had been hired by Robert Rodale as a Rodale Press book editor in 1961, took over as president of the Institute. Ardath Rodale became the Institute's chairman. Anthony, son of Ardath and Bob, became vice-chairman. Anthony and his wife, Florence, developed outreach efforts to children during their period of active program involvement before Anthony became an international ambassador for the Institute. Board member Paul McGinley, Esq., became co-chair of the board with Ardath in 2005. Testimony by Bob Rodale, John Haberern and farmers and agricultural scientists who swore by their sustainable methods had convinced the U.S. Congress to include funds for sustainable agriculture (first called “Low-Input Sustainable Agriculture)” in the 1985 Farm Bill.

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