Joseph Heckman

Drinking farm fresh milk was part of life for Joseph Heckman growing up on an organic dairy farm in Darke County Ohio. After earning degrees in Agronomy from The Ohio State University and University of Maryland, and a doctorate in Soil Science from North Carolina State University, Dr. Heckman became a Professor of Soil Science at Rutgers University where he teaches courses in Soil Fertility, Organic Crop Production, and Graduate Student Seminars. He conducts research and extension programs on optimizing nutrition and soil quality in support of plant, animal, and human health. Dr. Heckman has authored numerous publications on soil fertility and history of organic agriculture. He was the lead author of a chapter on Soil Fertility in Organic Farming published by the American Society Agronomy. He is co-author of the books Fresh Milk Production, The Cow Edition and Fresh Milk Production, The Goat Edition. Most recently, he published (open access on web) a review: “Securing Fresh Food from Fertile Soil, Challenges to the Organic and Raw Milk Movements.”