Ardath Rodale Highlights Tour of Institute

Chris Torres
Staff Writer

KUTZTOWN, Pa. — Members of the Pennsylvania Women’s Agricultural Network (PA-WAgN) got a special treat during their second ever tour of the Rodale Institute farm on Wednesday.

Ardath Rodale, who founded the original farm the institute does most of its research on today, gave a moving speech on connecting with nature and the food system and how she believes it helped her defy the odds of cancer, twice.

It was part of WAgN’s second tour of the institute. Over 100 people, mostly women, attended the day-long event, which included a wagon tour of various plots the institute does experiments on.

At various stops, visitors observed work being done on cover cropping, the use of compost and research on plants from around the world.

“The Global Garden,” as it is known, contains plants from six of the world’s seven continents. The garden is a tool to learn about farming methods from around the world.

A visit to the institute’s compost station included a demonstration of a compost turner, which was built in 1995 out of an old truck chassis for $25,000.

Linda Moist, senior extension associate with Penn State who works with WAgN, said the program has grown rapidly since it was started three years ago, with more than 1,000 members today.

“The members are very different women with very different ideas,” Moist said. “But the one thing they have in common is their willingness to learn from each other.”

A highlight of the day was Ardath Rodale’s speech about how the institute has changed her life through the years.

When the founder of the Rodale Institute, J.I. Rodale — Ardath’s father-in-law — died in 1971, she and her late husband Robert decided they needed to expand the farm from its base in Allentown to continue the experiments J.I. started in the 1930s.

After an exhaustive search for more land, Ardath eventually came upon a little-used farm just outside of Kutztown. Years of neglect had turned the farm into an eyesore. But Ardath saw great potential.

“It was exciting; we saw a lot of places,” she said. “But when I saw this place, I knew we had to relocate here.”

Having done research on the farm’s history, she found out it dated back to the days of William Penn and the well-known Siegfried family of Berks County.

Nine generations of Siegfrieds lived and farmed the more than 300 acres that would eventually become the Rodale home. Years of economic hardship eventually forced the Siegfried family to sell the picturesque property.

Ardath remembers the day she bought the farm with excitement, but also sadness. The family left virtually everything behind, taking with them only a carful of belongings and more than 100 years worth of memories.

“It was sad to see them go because they were a great family,” she said.

Almost immediately, Ardath and Robert got to work, transforming the farm into a place they could do experiments and continue J.I. Rodale’s legacy of demonstrating to the world the benefits of organic farming.

“But it took a while, because the soil was so neglected,” she said. “You couldn’t even hear a bird because it was so stripped.”

In 1989, Ardath was diagnosed with cancer, her first of two bouts with the potentially deadly disease.

Then in 1990, tragedy struck again. Robert was killed in a car accident in Russia.

Then Ardath’s cancer returned in 1993.

“At that time, I was overwhelmed with a lot of things,” she said.

But tragedy didn’t keep her down. She did a lot of research on the use of chemicals in the food system and along the way, she discovered her own personal connection between natural foods and her soul.

“Food is not only for the body, but for the soul,” she said.

The institute’s mission of connecting mind, body and soul through the development of natural food processes is something she says will continue and something she encouraged all members of WAgN to embrace.

“All life is sacred,” she said. “Nature can be the orchestra leader to help us heal. The world needs us and our mission and all of your other missions out there.”

Tim LaSalle, the institute’s first ever CEO who was hired last year, reiterated his mission to get the institute to focus more on developing good farming methods that have a positively effect on climate change.

He said transforming the world’s 3.5 billion acres of tillable land into no-till could take care of 40 percent of the world’s carbon levels.

“We really don’t have any choice but to reverse the pollution we are leaving for future generations to come,” LaSalle said. “It’s an exciting time to be at the institute and we have so many things to give.”