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Organic Farming Generates Huge Returns
Organic farms are good business, folks. Despite the apparent immutability of today’s farming operations which appear to force you into either signing up with Big Farming or depend on the local hipster population to power your small-scale operations, Matt and Anne Burkholder are doing just fine on their 5,000-acre operation.
Things originally started out as an alfalfa farm, but today the Burkholders grow organic corn alongside genetically modified foods throughout the farm. They ventured into organic production back in the 1990s, and it helped business greatly thanks to the higher premiums possible in organic farming. Plus, organic methods allowed Matt to rely on insect-eating wasps rather than chemicals (saving hugely in the process). Anne’s canny marketing of the Burkholder estate’s beef to buyers who care about their meat’s provenance means the Burkholders can make a handsome profit.
Methods like these allowed the Burkholders to generate a 2011 revenue of $8.2 million. The lesson here isn’t necessarily that organic farming is lucrative business, although as the Burkholders’ success shows, it certainly can be. Rather, organic approaches both ask for a greater personal (and financial) investment, but also offer a higher return in addition to the ethical benefits. Maybe it really is about time we started caring about how we live and how that influences everything aside from us.
Organic Farming Generates Huge Returns originally appeared in Green Chip Stocks. Green Chip Review is a free 2x-per-week newsletter, is the first advisory to focus exclusively on investments in alternative and renewable energies.
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