HEADLINE
“We try to be as organic as possible. But if we can do that using technology, why forego that?”
Text and images by Caitlyn Daproza
Farmer Jeremy Brown taps the nose of a young calf. “I love the ones with the pink noses,” he says.
This pink-nosed newborn is just one of about 3,200 cattle at Twin Birch Dairy in Skaneateles, New York. In Brown’s eyes, the cows on the farm aren’t just workers: “They're the boss, they’re the queen of the barn.”
A co-owner at Twin Birch, Brown boasts that the farm’s operation has a carbon footprint half the national average.
“Ruminants are the solution, not the problem, to climate change,” he said. Brown, who wears a weathered hoodie and a hat promoting Zactran, a kind of cow medicine, spends a windy Friday morning inseminating some of the farm’s massive Jerseys and Holsteins. He steps over an electric manure scraper, one of the many sustainable operations the farm has put into practice.
Despite putting value in recycling the cattle’s manure, cooling machines for the milk and growing most of its own feed, the farm has no desire to pursue a USDA Organic certification.
He raises the question many farmers have been asking lately, Is organic farming just a word?
An increasing number of American farmers think so. America’s certified organic acreage fell 10.9 percent between 2019 and 2021. Numerous farmers who implement sustainable practices told The Associated Press that they have stayed away from the certification because it’s costly, doesn’t do enough to combat climate change and could be losing cachet in the marketplace.
POSSIBLE ENDER:
Brown said.
Shannon Ratcliff, a farmer and co-owner of organically certified Shannon Brook Farms in Watkins Glen, New York, attributes the national decrease in organic acreage to a fraud incident involving a farmer selling grain mislabeled as certified organic. "The whole thing went crazy- work requirements for farmers ramped up and inspection levels were higher,” she said.
"It takes 6 months to learn everything," says Shannon Brook Farms co-owner Walter Adam, who believes the interest in farming for younger generations is also declining. "We can't find anybody as willing to work on the farm." Adam drives to Manhattan each week to sell their meat and eggs at markets, and spends Sunday mornings helping Ratcliff with business at the Brighton Farmers Market in Brighton, New York.
TRANSITION/CONSUMER ANGLE HERE
DR FRANK PERSPECTIVE
John Bolton, owner of Bolton Farms in Hilton, New York, said he has some reservations about organic certification, but he’s pursuing it for his hydroponic farm. The farm produces greens such as kale and chard and is popular as a supplier for restaurants in western New York, drawing waves of regular customers at the Rochester Public Market on weekends.
Bolton described the organic certification as economically and environmentally beneficial to his farm. Getting the certification will carry an expense, but he is confident it will be worth the price. “It helps with sales. And you feel good about it – you’re doing the right practices,” Bolton said.
Bolton doesn’t use pesticides, and on one chilly early spring day in his greenhouse he was unloading 1,500 ladybugs to do the work of eliminating the operation’s aphids. That is the kind of practice organic farms use to earn the certification, he said.
He said his operations aren't immune to the dangers posed by climate change. Abnormally hot days negatively impact the condition in the greenhouse: “It’s devastating to not only the people but the plants,” said Bolton
John Bolton looks up as he works in the hydroponic greenhouse in Hilton, N.Y. on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
Ladybugs disperse out of a tray to mitigate aphids at Bolton Farms, a hydroponic greenhouse facility in Hilton, N.Y. on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
Young plant sprouts are kept in a tray at Bolton Farms in Hilton, N.Y. on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
Sunny, an employee of Bolton Farms, laughs as she speaks with a customer at the Rochester Public Market in Rochester, N.Y. on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
Seedlings grow at Bolton Farms in Hilton, N.Y. on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
