Organic and Non-GMO Farmer Profiles

Nebraska family farm takes the plunge into organic production

By Jessica Votipka It took some convincing, a lot of thinking and plenty of innovating, but the Heinze Family in Bradshaw, Nebraska, took on an organic farming adventure. Originally a conventionally-run farm, one of those crops translated into an ideal transition into organic farming—but it took time. “For a number of years, we had been […]

Les Fermes Longprés: Regenerative for generations

By Rob Wallbridge Many organic farms can point to increased biodiversity and enhanced soil health as the result of their management practices. At Les Ferme Longprés in Quebec, the Dewavrin family has made conserving soil their central principle, and they have continually adapted their management with this goal in mind. The difference may seem subtle, […]

Organic farmers receive death threat over their opposition to hog confinement

Hog CAFO threatens health of farming couple, Randy and Crystal Clair, and their organic farm One day in July, Crystal Clair received a strange package in the mail. She opened it and found a round piece of wire with tiny teeth like those on a saw blade. She didn’t know what it was but when […]

Profit potential and soil health draw 4th generation corn-and-soybean farm into organics

By Steve Sinkula Chuck Thompson was tired of living hand-to-mouth. Like many farmers, he grew up on a traditional, corn-and-soybean operation in Humboldt, Iowa, and returned to it after college. Today, he and his brother farm with their father, making them the fourth generation of the family farm. But in the last decade, the Thompsons […]

True grits: Old-fashioned, non-GMO Southern comfort food rises again

Some traditions are best left untouched. Millennials and health-conscious consumers are showing a strong preference for clean, non-GMO, minimally processed foods—the “kind your grandmother would recognize.” It’s hard to imagine any food fitting that bill better than a corn conventionally grown with traditional breeding, with minimal use of chemical inputs, harvested by hand, and stoneground […]