If the study outlined in last issue's Gazette didn't convince you, here's further evidence that organic food is healthier than nonorganic. A new European study from Newcastle University has produced the same results, showing that foods from organic farms have higher levels of antioxidants. But unlike the University of California-Davis study, which only tested tomatoes, this one found the higher nutrient levels in meat, milk and even grains!

I am the Mother Earth News staff person who answers most of the readers' questions. The range of questions asked is impressive: how to cure psoriasis, what's the best woodstove, where to find bamboo floor covering in Mesa, Ariz., the best strategy for getting roosters to stop fighting with each other – well, you get the picture.

One of my favorite reader questions is 'How do I learn all I need to know to move to the country and be successful supporting my family on a farm?' My answer is usually to plant tomatoes and hang clothes on the line where you live, now. Over time, add some other country-living skills to your repertoire and see how the family enjoys it. If all goes well, you will have developed some of the skills and the necessary attitude to make a successful transition to country life. Tackling the learning curve before making the move makes sense – but not everyone does it that way, some just jump in with both feet and hope for the best.

Logan and Heather Ward did just that. In the book, See You in a Hundred Years, Logan tells how he and his wife left the fast paced life of New York City, bought a farm in Swoope, Va., and proceeded to live there for a year as though it were 1900 and not the 21^st century. After a few months of getting their ducks – or chickens and goats – in a row, they unplugged and settled in for 12 months of off -the-grid farm life with their two-year-old son, Luther.

The Wards were overwhelmed by the community support they received during their year-long experiment. Neighbors praised the Wards for their efforts that brought the community together and reminded them of the homesteading skills that built the community a hundred years ago.

Whether you are planning to move to the country or just enjoy a good tale of hard work and the joys of rural living, this book may inspire you to consider a simpler life.

Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Dennis C. Wolff has banned milk companies from labeling their milk as hormone-free. According to Wolff, such labels imply that milk containing rBGH, or recombinant bovine growth hormone, is not safe for consumption.

This is a huge win for Monsanto (hormone manufacturer and agri-business giant) and big loss for consumers in Pennsylvania who want to avoid artificial hormones, which are used in commercial dairies to bolster milk production. They have been implicated in cases of precocious puberty, and have been banned in the European Union, Canada, Australia and Japan.

Click here for the story, and here for more on rBGH.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays – food, family, friends and no gifts. The whole day can be spent eating, talking and taking an after-dinner walk. But as anyone who has actually cooked the Thanksgiving dinner knows, all of those friends and family members can hinder the cooks' efforts.

So, here are some almost free ideas for decorating the dinner table, while also keeping the kids entertained and out from underfoot:

• go outside and collect colored leaves; put the leaves in a glass bowl in the center of the table
• fill a glass bowl with fruit
• roll down the sides of a small paper grocery bag to create a paper vase and fill the vase with apples
• cut a few branches with colored leaves still attached and put the branches into the paper vase
• let each child color a turkey on construction paper for placemats
• put one perfect fall leaf at each guest's plate

Decorating does not have to be expensive to express the tone of a holiday. Just use what you have on hand and encourage your children to be a part of the preparations and the celebration.

You've probably heard reports about the 21 schools in Virginia that were shut down due to an outbreak of a deadly strain of Staphylococcus bacteria, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The antibiotic-resistant strain spread through schools nationwide, and was even responsible for one death. When it showed up at the school where my husband teaches, Staph began to dominate my thoughts. What is happening here?

While there is no hard evidence to implicate widespread antibiotic use in agriculture as a cause for this mutated strain of Staph, a study published in Veterinary Microbiology pointed out that it commonly occurs in North American swine operations. The Keep Antibiotics Working coalition (KAW) is asking Congress to require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to determine if the use of human antibiotics in agriculture is contributing to the surge in MRSA infections and deaths.

Of course, bacteria are constantly evolving, and we work hard to ensure that our antibiotics keep up. But are antibiotics responsible? We know that antibacterial products are are overused in our cleaners and soaps, reducing our immune system's ability to defend against infection. Add to that the risks associated with the use of antibiotics in factory farming, and we've got a crisis on our hands. I hope the FDA responds to these requests and begins conducting tests at swine operations throughout the United States and Canada.

Read more.

It's that time of year again when folks who heat their homes with a woodstove or just enjoy the occasional use of their fireplace think of laying in a hefty supply of cordwood.

If you have not yet ordered your year's supply of wood, before doing so you may want to consider how much heat the wood you burn will produce. The efficiency of a woodstove is based on many factors, among them are the dryness of the wood and the kind of wood being burned. For a quick hot fire the best wood is a light weight soft wood such as pine. If you want a fire that will give a steady heat and last a long time, then a hardwood such as oak is your best bet.

The chart in the Image Gallery of this article tells the BTUs per cord of 27 varieties of hard and soft woods. It also includes ratings for ignition and smoke produced when burning.

But no matter what kind of wood you burn, if it is not aged properly it will not produce the optimum heat. Green-cut wood needs to be seasoned for six to 18 months, depending on the kind of wood. And stacking the wood in the most efficient way will speed up the process, allowing the sun and wind to dry the wood.

A cord of wood is 128 cubic feet or a stack 4 feet wide by 4 feet high by 8 feet long. A 'face' cord is 2 feet wide by 4 feet high by 8 feet long. You can stack your wood in this kind of rectangular shape on in more fanciful arrangements. But however you stack it, be sure to place the wood so that there is sufficient airflow between the pieces to encourage drying.

You can read more about firewood and logging at www.MotherEarthShopping.com

There are lots of goings-on in agriculture this week. Of particular interest is the approval of the Average Crop Revenue (ACR) program, as the Senate Agriculture Committee continues with their markup of the 2007 farm bill.

The ACR bases subsidy payments on average state revenue for each commodity, which are only paid when the state revenue falls below a state guarantee. This is definitely different from the current subsidy system, but critics of the new bill say it's not different enough. According to an article by Elizabeth Becker in the Washington Post, the proposed bill again puts small farms at a disadvantage. 'There will be no deep reforms of farm policy as long as the welfare of the poor is tied to the welfare of corporate farmers,' Becker wrote. (Read more at www.farmpolicy.com.)

Continue to watch closely, a new farm bill will soon take effect—we'll continue to watch and report new developments.