LINKS The Benefits of Drinking Organic Coffee http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eRv ANZAC DAY How I Went From Tormented Veteran, to Peaceful Homesteader. http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eQD Why mulch? http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ePw Organic OU http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eMu **** This is the World Organic News for the week ending 17th of April 2017. Jon Moore reporting! I’d like to start this week with a big thank you to hunnybunny73 from Gypsyhomestead. You may recall I quoted from this blog last episode and received a delightful comment on the About page of the blog. Thank you hunnybunny73, I was touched by your kind words and yes, we are saving the world, one cabbage at a time! Now to this week’s stories. We have a post from Muddy Waters Coffee Co. entitled:The Benefits of Drinking Organic Coffee. Now this podcast and the blog a fueled by copious amounts of coffee so it’s always great to find some bias confirmation. The post offers four benefits of organic coffee: 1 It’s Chemical Free 2 It’s Nutritious 3 It tastes better 4 It’s healthy Seems far enough to me! Now onto a more serious matter. This episode is being released on the 24th April. The eve of ANZAC day, the day when we here in Australia and in New Zealand remember our war fallen. ANd so we have a post entitled: How I Went From Tormented Veteran, to Peaceful Homesteader from the blog Pointerpooch homestead. The author gives a brief explanation of how he was affected by war, how a half hour in a bunker changed his life and not for the good. Then and I quote. Long Quote: I sank into depression and the torment of feeling useless and ashamed. Then, more than anything, I wanted to revisit my childhood and get lost in the innocence that was there. I began to yearn the smell of wet earth. I began craving the feeling of earth on my bare feet. I wanted to be in the silence that follows a storm. I wanted to watch rain drip off verdant leaves. I wanted to feel the dampness come off a field of vegetables. I wanted to smell the spiciness of tomato leaves. Above all other things: I wanted to watch things grow. I started small, with only a couple of plants. A few corn stalks and a few tomato plants. Most walk-in closets have more space than my first garden did. I planted the seeds directly in the ground. I decided that even though I knew it would be easier to start them indoors, I liked the idea of the seed going in the ground. When my first tomato plant popped its little jagged leaves out for the first time I was hooked, but it was more than simple pride in mastery over nature. It was more than a feeling of anticipation of harvesting my own tomatoes. I felt in control of something. I was responsible for something. I felt connected to something. I felt connected to the earth. I was growing my own nourishment. I was tending the very thing that was keeping me alive: Food. End Quote. And our author was away. Turning his life around. I’ll leave the rest of the post for you to read. The main thing I got from this post was the return of wonder through growing food. It is a thing of joy and excitement to me too whenever a seed thrusts through the soil into the light. That such a process is also healing for many, is no surprise. Now let’s turn to more mundane matters. From the blog Royal Crest Farm comes the post: Why mulch? Why indeed? There are many reasons to mulch, the primary being biomimicry. To put that another way, if mulching is good enough for Nature, it’s probably good enough for all of us. The post however provides the following reasons for mulching: 1 Weed Control 2 Moisture retention 3 Prevents Soil Erosion 4 Maintains soil nutrients 5 Controls pests 6 Polishes up the look of your garden. All but number 6 Polishes up the look of your garden, is a confirmation of why mulch is a part of natural systems. Now to a post about the organic farm at Oakland University. Started by Dr Fay Hansen whose voice will the first one you hear talking about the setup of the farm. Audio of Dr Hansen inserted here. The farm is a full prod