A small minority of farmers in the Midwest produces crops on a commercial scale without using modern fertilizers and pesticides. On the basis of a 5-year study, it appears that these farmers have more in common with the majority of farmers in the region than with certain stereotypes of organic farmers. Their farming practices (other than chemical use), the size and labor requirements of their farms, and the production and profitability they achieve differ from those of conventional farmers by considerably less than might be expected on the basis of the fundamental importance of chemicals in modern agricultural production. Compared to conventional methods, organic methods consume less fossil energy and cause less soil erosion, but have mixed effects on soil nutrient status and grain protein content.

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In areas where farmland is under heavy development pressure but where farms are too small to compete in major marketing channels with larger farms in other regions, producers must use channels that capitalize on their proximity to consumers. This advantage is greatest for fresh fruits and vegetables, provided farmers understand their urban customers' purchasing preferences. This study interviewed more than 600 customers at farmers' markets and supermarkets in six urban and suburban communities in eastern Massachusetts and at agricultural fairs. Respondents were asked about their reasons for purchasing fruits and vegetables at various sites, about their preferences, if any, for produce grown locally, and about changes that might cause them to purchase more local produce. The results suggest that for local origin to be taken into account by consumers, the produce should be sold in a locally oriented environment, e.g., a farmers' market. Although the particular supermarkets in this study featured locally grown produce in their advertising, this seems to have had little effect on consumers' buying. Conversely, consumers' highly favorable opinion of farmers' markets involved several factors besides the localness of the produce in a purely geographic sense. These included the pleasant environment, the (presumed) short time since the produce was picked, and the opportunity to purchase directly from the producer in a face-to-face transaction.

It was not until the 1970s, with growing awareness of an environmental crisis, that organic farming attracted interest in the wider worlds of agriculture, society and politics. The context of origins; natural agriculture and its successors in the German speaking world; biodynamic agriculture; and organic farming in the English speaking world are also discussed.

Research focused on consumer behavior and attitudes toward organic, small-scale and locally produced foods can help organic producers understand consumer values, and in turn develop production and marketing approaches that match these values. This research on New England area food shoppers included focus groups, individual interviews, and a mail survey, all of which helped us to identify relationships between organic food buying and consumers' views of the food system. Comments made in focus groups and individual interviews revealed a frequent blending of the concepts of local, small-scale and organic, and their associated benefits. Subsequent mail surveys identified similar tendencies, although respondents made some distinctions among the reasons why they bought food from the three farm categories. When there were differences, respondents tended to attribute greater importance to reasons to buy from local farms, as compared to organic or small farms. The six questions for which the differences across farm categories had the lowest P-values were related to the environment, rural economy, rural landscape, farmers, product freshness and product taste. However, freshness, taste, nutritional quality and safety were some of the most compelling reasons that were attributed to all three farm categories. The challenge for the small, local and organic producer will be to continue to hold the consumer's attention as the general perception of organic farming shifts to a more industrialized model.

We have studied the reactions e" +p^ e~ +K + +A and e~ +p-» e" +K + +i: 0 by detecting the final electron and kaon in coincidence. Data are presented in the region of virtual-photon mass squared from -0.18 to -1.2 GeV 2 , virtual-photoproduction center-of-mass energy from 1.85 to 2.60 GeV, and virtual-photoproduction center-of-mass angle from 0 to 28°. The S°/A ratio tends to be smaller than in photoproduction, and the data suggest large scalar production of the K + A final state.We have used the two-arm spectrometer system at the Cambridge Electron Accelerator 1 to study the reactionse-+p-+e-+K + +X° (2) by observing the scattered electron and the kaon in coincidence.To lowest order in the electrodynamic interaction reactions, (1) and (2) can be treated as photoproduction by a virtual photon whose mass, energy, direction, and polarization density matrix are tagged by the detected electron. The virtualphotoproduction cross sections presented in this paper were obtained using the conventions of Ref. 1. The results are expressed in terms of k 2 9 the virtual-photon mass squared; W 9 the virtual-photoproduction center-of-mass energy; 0, the polar angle between the virtual photon and the kaon in the virtual-photoproduction center-ofmass frame;

An increase in organic farming is thought to be attributed to the subsidization of organic farming (at least for western Europe). However, subsidies, while stimulating convertion to organic farming since the 1990s, were a result, not a cause, of the earlier growing interest in organics in the 1970s and 1980s. In the absence of thorough analysis several possibilities suggest themselves: organic activists were successful in promoting their views to the public, scientists and policy makers; as new concerns emerged regarding the environment, the situation of farm workers and small farmers worldwide, and food safety; over the decades, organic farming changed in ways that made it more appealing to a broader public, in contrast to its narrow circle of adherents in the early days.