Why We Farm: How Organic Farmers Are Changing the World

Linley Dixon farms organic vegetables in Southwest Colorado. She holds a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of Florida and a Masters in Soil Science from West Virginia University in organic farming systems. She held a 2-year post-doctorate with the USDA’s Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory in plant-fungal interactions.

In 2018, she began the pilot program for the Real Organic Project certification program and is now the Co-Director with Vermont organic farmer Dave Chapman. Real Organic Project is a farmer-led “add-on” organic certification that certifies farms just as the organic movement intended. We foster healthy soils and pasture livestock and ensure protections for workers, and we are committed to “whole farm” organic principles across all our agricultural enterprises.

Real Organic Project provides the transparency that is often lacking in the marketplace and educates eaters about the farming practices that provide for a healthy future. We have partnered with the international Organic certification agency Naturland to unite the organic movement worldwide under one label and movement.

Caroline encountered organic farming in 2014 while she was studying Sociology, Religions Studies, and Critical Theory at Macalester College. The experience of working alongside people outside, with her mind and body, growing food, was such a beautiful contrast to studying the impacts of the Industrial Revolution on society — which largely disconnects people from the origins of kindness and things, from the art of craft and connection.

She found that the work of small-scale organic agriculture integrates the human experience to place, ecosystem, and community. She was drawn into the counter-cultural revolution that real organic farming is, leading to nearly a decade of work in education, farming, and food justice initiatives, including co-founding Good Neighbor Farm, an Organic vegetable farm, with her partner in Ann Arbor, MI, in 2021.

She has been working with the Real Organic Project since May of 2024 as the Midwest Regional Coordinator, and is currently farming with her partner at Long Wind Farm in Vermont.

Melissa is a first-generation vegetable and flower farmer, passionate about stewarding the environment, supporting farmers, and strengthening the food system. Melissa was drawn to farming after relocating from London, England, to Austin, Texas, to pursue a master’s in Sustainability, where her eyes were opened to the negative impact industrial agriculture has on aquatic environments. As she followed the pollution upstream, she was compelled to start growing food herself. Backyard turned community gardens turned organic farm in the Sierras, and she was hooked! Fast forward to the present day, and she and her husband have built a small  Real Organic certified farm in Upstate NY, called Hidden Acre Farm. They sell their vegetables and flowers at three weekend farmers markets, including Carroll Gardens Greenmarket in Brooklyn.

Though incredibly rewarding and tasty, farming is a tough and risky business, and Melissa sees great purpose in supporting the people who grow our food. Sourcing food from farms that are growing in harmony with nature, raising animals humanely, and treating people fairly has a real impact on our environment, communities, and local economies. In addition to farming, Melissa is a Real Organic Project Regional Organizer for the Northeast.

Emily Oakley co-owns and operates Three Springs Farm, a diversified, certified-organic vegetable farm in eastern Oklahoma. With her partner Mike, she cultivates over forty different crops and more than 150 individual varieties on three acres of land. They sell all of their produce directly to their customers through a 350-member CSA program. Their goal is to maintain a two-person operation that demonstrates the economic viability of small-scale farming. Emily served as an Organic Producer Representative to the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board from 2016-2021.

Beth and Nathan Corymb farm land, where Beth grew up. She left as a young person, but “always held the dream and long-term goal of returning to bring organic and biodynamic agriculture to this special piece of Mother Earth.”

After farming together in internships in Camphill Villages in the early 1980s, they knew agriculture was their chosen path. They committed themselves to sustainable farming early on. “We both trained biodynamically, which is a whole farm approach with the garden integrated in the farm. We love nature and wanted to see Nature supported in the farming practices,” says Beth.

Their inspiration to grow seed, and their training, began with a lifetime membership in the Seed Savers Exchange, followed by Nathan’s internships at Sativa biodynamic seed (Switzerland) and Bingenheim biodynamic seed (Germany) in the early 1990s. A reduction in the availability of favorite varieties strengthened their motivations to grow seed.

These aspirations have been realized, as the Corymbs began farming the site in 2010 and the land is now certified Organic and Demeter Certified Biodynamic for seed growing. They are working to develop a demonstration biodynamic farm combining seed growing, Community Supported Agriculture, biodynamic training and social work. They produce seed, vegetables and heirloom livestock.

Dru has been a farmer for the past thirty years at Full Belly Farm, where she grows over one hundred different crops with her husband, two farm partners, and a crew of over 60 amazing workers. Dru’s passions at the farm are the flowers and the animals, both of which are in high demand by customers from throughout Northern California.

Dru is the mother of four incredible children all of whom currently work at the farm. She could not be happier with her life work and enjoys every minute of each day.