Organic Farmers on the Ground - Good Growing: Why Organic Farming Works - page 127

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kits. So we will sell the soil mix and the grains and people can go home
and raise it themselves. And we have a new product in the market, Kendyl
and Noelina's Canine Crackers. We are making our own dog biscuits for
the farmers' market. We have vegetarian, beef, and chicken.” They sell at
the Chicago Green City Market at Lincoln Park everyWednesday fromMay
until October. “It is about an hour and fifteen minute drive with no traffic.
At five in the morning, you can get there in that time. But it is fun because
not only are you a salesman, but you are an educator. There are a lot of
people-Igivemysales pitch for flax feeding of livestock - and now I will
have the research information of my own to back it up.”

H OME ON THE PLAINS [127], (37)

Allen, Cliff, and Naioma Benson, Colorado

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Th is large dryland organic farm lies on the open plains of eastern Colorado.
Th e landscape is wide open and the winds are truly awesome. The horizon
se ems endless. It reminds a visitor how small a human truly is. This is the
la nd of the buffalo, the native tribes, then the settlers, and of course the Dust
Bo wl. This is where Naioma and Cliff Benson have been farming organically
sin ce 1977, and they've now handedmost of the work over to their son Allen,
w ho is in his forties. This makes for the fourth generation on the land. Cliff 's
gr andfather homesteaded here in 1909, and various parcels of the farmwere
in herited from both sides of the family. Allen gives a few details about their
fa rm. “We're at 5,700 acres right now, both rented and owned, 4,800 in crops.
W e're spread out over a nineteen-mile range, it's nine miles by ten miles,” a
pa tchwork. Naioma explains, “This is real advantageous, too, because of the
ha ilstorms. We won't lose everything at once.”
The shift between generations has been a gentle one, as Cliff jokingly
as ks his son, “Allen, what year did you come back and start working on the
fa rm? I know when he showed up, I started to slack off.” Naioma says, “You
m ust have bought your first land in 1996.” Cliff explains their labor: “Now
it is pretty much me and you and another hired hand. Summertime we hire
another man sometimes, too.”Allen clarifies, “The second one is part time.”
Cliff andNaioma talk proudly of how theymade the transition to organic
farming. They were the only ones in the area. She says, “In the seventies a
stranger was visiting here from the east coast, and he stopped and told us to
check into organic farming, because he saw a few weeds in our fields. The
weeds meant that we were already not spraying much if at all.” Their land

[127], (37)