Working with nature, rather than against it, is the central tenet of sustainable, organic and biodynamic farming. This includes utilizing nature’s army of beneficial life forms, rather than fighting against them. Insects, invertebrates, birds and mammals are all surprising little helpers in the production of healthy, wholesome crops of grapes and cider apples.

The sad truth is that when the world became industrialized, our food system became industrialized too. This might sound like a good thing. (Hey, it means we can get avocados year-round, whatever specific apple hybrid we want, and enough beef to satisfy our burger cravings, right?) But nowadays, most farms look more like factories than like sources of freshly grown nutrition.

GUELPH, Ont. — The art of agriculture or, for some, its spiritual essence, should be valued as much as the science, says a farmer from Ontario.

“We have to realize everything is interconnected and we cannot live in isolation,” Chris Boettcher told the Guelph Organic Conference Jan. 29.

“It may be that we’re entering the second age of enlightenment.”

Boettcher and his wife, Gabi, have lived what he describes as two different farming lifestyles.

Pope Francis today blew out 79 candles on a giant “biodynamic” lemon cake made especially for his birthday and delivered to his St. Marta residence.

The low-calorie dessert, made from free-range eggs, Italian cream and Calabrian lemons, was the fruit of painstaking work by pastry chefs at Hedera, an ice cream shop nearby on Borgo Pio.

Greenwashing is the practice of paying lip service to environmental issues, and for the record, millennials loathe it.

As Forbes magazine put it in a recent story, “They are always on the lookout for corporate hypocrisy.”

At Sonoma County wineries, green comes in countless flavors: biodynamic farming, organic certifications, solar panels, environmental fundraisers, donations to environmental foundations and even parking lot charging stations for electronic cars.