As both consumer and producer interest in organic production picks up in the Keystone State, scientists and educators in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences are scrambling to provide the needed knowledge and expertise: Penn State Cooperative Extension specialists are broadening their educational offerings for farmers and agricultural newcomers interested in organic production; an Organic option is being proposed for the Horticulture major, and two new organic classes are being offered to undergraduate students—Organic Principles and Practices, and Organic Vegetable and Berry Production; and research into improved organic-production methods is being ramped up.

At the university’s Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs, organic research has taken on prominence. Ten acres of land used for research on horticultural and field crops, such as tomatoes, corn, and soybeans, and four hightunnel vegetable greenhouses were certified as organic last fall, and researchers hope a nearby one-acre plot used for growing vegetables also will transition to organic in the near future.

At Penn State’s Fruit Research and Extension Center at Biglerville in Adams County, two acres of apple trees have received organic certification, and three more acres soon will follow. The college plans to use all of these organic-certified tracts for teaching and research, and then disseminate what is learned through its extension system to producers who are craving more information—a perfect example of the land-grant university system in action.