Why This Farmer Wants To Go Beyond Organic

Luke Peterson is a Minnesota farmer with the soil in his veins. He grew up in Laq qui Parle State Park, and his father was a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) employee.

Emmer wheat. 

Peterson also spent time working for the DNR, focusing on the critical undertaking of prairie restoration. During the Public Land Survey from 1847-1907, Minnesota had 18 million acres of prairie. Only 1% of that remains.

During his time in the DNR, Peterson “learned how diversity is key to ecosystem survival.” He then moved to conventional farming and began “learning about the politics behind seed, synthetic fertilizer and pesticide sales. I began questioning if I was a farmer, or a mere pawn for Big Agriculture,” he says.

Taking what he’d learned from his time with the DNR, he came to this conclusion: “Diversity would be key to my farming future.” So he decided to transition the 80-acre farm settled by his great-great-grandfather and go completely organic.

Read the story from Forbes by Theresa Beckhusen - “Why This Farmer Wants To Go Beyond Organic.”