Our Roots Grow Deep: The Story of Rodale

Hailed by some as a “visionary” and others as a “quack,” Jerome Irving Rodale and his wife, Anna, moved from New York City to the rural community of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, where they bought a farm and lived the life they had only dreamed about. J. I.’s interest in chemical free food and his own health led to the creation of Organic Farming and Gardening magazine in 1942, and in 1950, to Prevention magazine. After J. I. suffered a fatal heart attack on the Dick Cavett Show in 1971, his son, Robert, took over and incorporated organic gardening and farming and preventive health care into more far-reaching areas of organic living, active lifestyles, and regenerative agriculture. After Bob died tragically in 1990, Ardie, Bob’s widow, and their family carried on the tradition. The company, still privately owned and run, brought the concepts of organic food, healthy active living, and environmental responsibility to the mainstream, and now reaches some 25 million customers through Prevention, Organic Gardening, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Best Life, Bicycling, Mountain Bike, Runner’s World, and Running Times magazines; best-selling books such as An Inconvenient Truth, The South Beach Diet, The Doctors Book of Home Remedies, and Eat This, Not That!; multimedia Web sites; and numerous philanthropic activities. In this gorgeous, full-color volume loaded with photos and memorabilia, the story of the modest beginnings of this fascinating family and their sixty-plus years of tireless work that now helps millions of people worldwide live a more whole life is now available for the first time.