Published: July 03, 2008 12:46 pm            

VIDEO STORY: Organic Farming in Niagara

The Rodgers of Lockport became organic farmers for the money — they didn’t have enough.

Several years ago, they didn’t have the money to add herbicides to their fields, so they just turned the soil instead of spraying it.

“It did a real good job,” said Jeff Rodger of Haseley Dairy Farm, who co-owns the farm with his mother, Linda Rodger.

The year they turned the soil, their veterinarian suggested they think about going organic because they were already halfway there. To qualify as an organic farm, fields must be chemical- and pesticide-free for three years.

For the last year, Haseley Farms in Lockport has been certified organic. That means their cows don’t get with hormones or BST, hormone bovine somatotropins, which are injected into cows to make them give more milk — but the Haseley cows wouldn’t have been given such shots prior to becoming organic, according to the Rodgers.

“I never believed in it,” said Jeff’s mother, Linda Rodger, who grew up on the farm. “Once the cows are on it, you can’t get them off of it.”

“The more you get into this stuff, the worse it is,” she said, speaking of hormones and antibiotics. “The simpler life is better.”

It’s good to be a cow on the Haseley farm, where the 200 head of cattle are sent out to pasture daily to fortify their organic diet.

“Very few farms graze their cows,” said Linda, noting that many cows stand on cement all day in industrial-sized cow barns. “Their legs are shot.”

It wasn’t easy for the Haseley Farm to go organic, Jeff Rodger said, noting the paperwork is daunting.

“That’s the biggest drawback, the paperwork,” Jeff said, adding that his first application was more than 60 pages, although renewal is not quite as laborious.

But doing the paperwork means a big payback for this small Niagara County farm. They sell their organic milk for more than twice as much as non-organic milk ($30 per 100 pounds compared to $12 per 100 pounds).

Another farmer, Martin Yoder of Yoder Dairy Farm in Medina, also treats his cows to fresh pastures each day on his picture-perfect Amish farm.

“Cows are made to eat grass,” said Yoder, who is a member of a 28-family Amish community. Surprisingly, he and his son, Tidus, who has a farm down the road from Yoder, are the only organic farmers in a spiritual community noted for keeping life simple.

His plump, healthy-looking chickens, which he raises for his family, are given free range in a large fenced area across from his tidy house. His cows are fed natural foods free from chemicals or hormones, and their organic milk is sold to Dairy Lee and sold as Horizon Organic Milk. He also sells non-pasturized milk at his farm, but noted it is carefully tested each month.

“Pasturing kills the bad bugs but it also kills the good ones,” he said. “Homogenizing also destroys the fat particles so they don’t rise to the top. Then it’s not a natural product anymore.”

Yoder is on a list of state farmers who have taken a pledge of humane husbandry on the Web site of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York. The pledge enables consumers to identify farms they want to support (see sidebar).

Yoder, who said he turned to organic farming which he had some health challenges, noted that “people who are organically minded like this kind of operation.”

“To me, it’s a way of life. I’m not exposed to any chemical sprays, chemical fertilizers. It’s all bad. It’s all poisonous. If you work with nature, you’ll be rewarded,” he said.

Rewards aside, organic farms are sparse in the Niagara region, according to experts.

“I might get three or four calls a year about organic farming, and that isn’t many to start a business on,” said Paul Lehman, an educator for the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Niagara County, who said he would be interested in hearing from people who want to buy or produce organic foods.

Organically, Niagara region growers are behind the rest of the state, according to Robert Hadad, who specializes in local fresh markets for the cooperative extension. “There’s starting to be a bit more consumer demand. We certainly don’t have enough growers.”

Organic farming does not guarantee that the buyer is protected from problems like the salmonella infection that recently curtailed the sales of tomatoes throughout the nation — “Dirty farming is dirty farming,” Lehman said. However, in all cases, knowing where exactly where the food comes from and how it is grown protects the consumer and enhances the region.

“The more dollars you spend locally, the more they bounce around in the economic engine of the Niagara economy,” he said.

He encouraged those interested in learning more about organic farming to contact him at 433-8839, ext. 241.

In the meantime, buyers seeking fruits and vegetables directly from an organic farm should consider community-supported agriculture.

Consumers in Lockport, Tonawanda and Grand Island have banded together to support Porter Farms, just outside of Batavia, and pay at the start of each growing season to receive a bag of organic produce each week during the summer and fall months.

“People have a share in the farm,” said Katie Porter, whose father started the organic CSA about 14 years ago. Members pay up front about $310 for 22 weeks of produce, or about $14 a week. That money helps to fund the farmer’s costs for seeds and planting.

Each week in the CSA, members reap the harvest of their investment. Whatever is in season goes into the bags, Porter said, including lettuce, green beans, peas, peppers, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, lots of different varieties of greens, egg plant, beets, watermelon and cantaloupe.

“We emphasize this is not a grocery store. You share in the farm’s bounty,” Porter said. “A bad storm can wipe out a whole field. People learn about the trials and tribulations of farmers.”

That intimacy with the farmer’s life is what drew Alice Weppner of Grand Island to Porter Farm’s Grand Island group two years ago.

“You are buying a share of the farm, so you take good years with bad years. I like that part because it’s real, it’s part of the process,” Weppner said. “I think it’s just great being able to share that type of experience.”

Another bonus to being a CSA member was that Weppner’s 11-year-old grandson came along to the annual farm party that Porter Farms holds for its members and was able to experience a taste of organic farm life for himself. That pleased his grandmother.

“The younger you are when you start,” she said, “the better it is.”

Contact editor Michele DeLuca at693-1000, ext. 157.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.