Back-to-Nature Farming Finds a Place Advocates of 'Sustainable' Agriculture Make Strides with Pollution-Free Growing Methods

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Since the 1960s, organic farmers like Fred Kirschenmann have tended their fields and sewn their millet on the margins of American agriculture. Shunned by the mainstream, they were labeled as hippy idealists trying to return to nature.

In some ways, Mr. Kirschenmann fits that bill. A former professor of religious history, he returned to his family's North Dakota farm in the mid-'70s, determined to make it profitable and chemical-free.

He succeeded. The 2,600-acre Kirschenmann spread posts impressive crop yields and profits. And Kirschenmann has now become a spokesman for what is today called "sustainable" or "alternative" agriculture. "The conventional model of …