Organic Manifesto

Rodale was founded on the belief that organic gardening is the key to better health both for us and for the planet, and never has this message been more urgent. Now Maria Rodale, CEO and Chairman of Rodale Inc., sheds new light on the state of 21st-century farming. She examines the unholy alliances that have formed between the chemical companies that produce fertilizer and genetically altered seeds, the agricultural educational system that is virtually subsidized by those same companies, and the government agencies in thrall to powerful lobbyists, all of which perpetuate dangerous farming practices and deliberate misconceptions about organic farming and foods. Interviews with government officials, doctors, scientists, and farmers from coast to coast bolster her position that chemical-free farming may be the single most effective tool we have to protect our environment and, even more important, our health.

About the Author
Maria Rodale is the CEO and Chairman of Rodale Inc., the world’s leading multimedia company with a focus on health, wellness, and the environment, as well as the largest independent book publisher in the United States. Rodale reaches 70 million people worldwide through brands such as Prevention and Men’s Health; through books such as The South Beach Diet and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth; and through numerous digital properties. She is Editor-in-Chief of the company’s newest online venture,Rodale.com, which features the latest news and information about healthy living on a healthy planet, as well as her blog, Maria's Farm Country Kitchen.

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Maria Rodale joined Rodale in 1987, first working in circulation and direct marketing and eventually leading the company's in-house direct-marketing agency. In 1998, she served as director of strategy, where she led the strategic review, planning processes, and management changes that refocused the company on publishing information on healthy, active lifestyles. Rodale also led the company’s Organic Living division, Rodale’s first integrated-brand division, where she was the Editor-in-Chief of Organic Gardening and oversaw all of Rodale’s gardening books. She joined the Rodale board in 1991 and was elected chairman in 2007.

Rodale is the author of three books and has won numerous awards, including, in 2004, the National Audubon Society’s “Rachel Carson Award” and, in 2007, the United Nations Population Fund's “Award for the Health and Dignity of Women.” In 2009 she was named to Pennsylvania’s “Best 50 Women in Business” List. She is also a member of the board of Bette Midler's New York Restoration Project, a board member of the Rodale Institute, and a board member of the Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Maria Rodale lives in an ecologically friendly house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with her husband and three children.

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