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Organic farmer encourages conventional ag to transition

An organic farmer is encouraging conventional growers to explore transitioning to organic production.

Sylvia Burgos-Toftness raises grass-fed beef with her husband near Clear Lake, in northwest Wisconsin.

She tells Brownfield the organic sector wants to facilitate growth.

“We want to encourage them to come (and) not only take a look for a year or a month, but as long as it takes until that conventional farmer can find a path.  Sometimes that means transitioning just a small percentage of their acreage so they can learn the skills and understand what the market is like.”

She says many organic farmers started in conventional agriculture.

“Very often it was because they didn’t want to handle chemicals anymore.  Sometimes their wells were poisoned.  Sometimes they wouldn’t even eat the food off their own land.  At other times it was because they didn’t want to pay what it takes to have all of those fertilizers and pesticides as part of their cost of doing business.”

Speaking to Brownfield at the MOSES Organic Conference last month, Burgos-Toftness says low commodity prices are another reason farmers should look at organic farming.