06/22/2026
Eight club members made the trip to the Rodale Institute's sprawling 386-acre research and education center southwest of Fogelsville in Berks County, on June 12. The visitors center, where our tour started, is a former one-room schoolhouse. Several more members visited the following week.
The Rodale farm features a clean, almost odorless pig raising section. The one staffer who runs the entire operation is giving special attention, bottle-feeding a two-week-old piglet that got hurt when inadvertently stepped on by Mom. Like everything else, this part of the facility is a research center focused on profitable organic husbandry techniques.
One of Rodale's programs gives veterans and others interested in starting an organic business hands-on field work plus training that leads to their own business plan for getting started.