Conventional Farmers Trying Organic Practices
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Perhaps there was a time when there was a clear divide between organic farmers and conventional farmers. But if those lines ever existed, they are certainly blurred today. Dr. Erin Silva works with farmers wanting to incorporate organic and regenerative farming practices. She says the types of farmers interested in organic are highly diverse and include many conventional farmers.
Silva… “ So many of the farms that I work with aren't necessarily managing all their acres organically. They're looking at it as a way to diversify their operations and still run much of their acres conventionally, but choose specific acres to manage organically and capture that market opportunity using the land most appropriate for organic agriculture. To be able to capture that market, but still using the tools available for conventional agriculture to do the best stewardship of acres that require that type of management. Anywhere from smaller farms, managing 10 to 50 acres of organic grains to farms running over 10,000 acres, which again may be more of what we call a parallel operation, operating some of those acres in conventional and some of those acres under organic. So incredibly diverse in terms of the sorts of farmers engaging in organic and also where those farmers are located.”
Dr. Silva is an Associate Professor and State Extension Specialist in Organic and Sustainable Cropping Systems at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
