A North Carolina farmer tells his story

John Vollmer’s comments to the Sustainable Agriculture and Foods Systems Funders Conference June, 2009

I was born and grew up on a farm near Bunn, NC, and until the 1980’s the economic anchor for our farm was tobacco. So it was for my daddy and granddaddy all the way back to Washington Duke and the founding of the American Tobacco Company in Durham in 1881. For over 100 years tobacco has been the mainstay of small farms just like ours in NC, SC, GA, VA, TN, and KY.

Unhooking from the tobacco wagon

In the 1980’s, however, things were about to change. During this 80’s decade, while serving as the president of the NC Tobacco Growers Association, I had a light bulb moment. We U.S. tobacco growers were not going to win the public relations and political battle that we were engaged in. Regulations and restrictions were coming. Competition from Brazil was eroding our worldwide market share. Public opinion and medical science were on the side of anti-tobacco activists. If our small family farm was to survive past my generation, we had to change how our farm worked and functioned. We had to unhook from the tobacco wagon.

Betty, my wife and business partner and I looked at many ideas. Our first new crop to grow was pumpkins. We offered school tours and sold pumpkins both retail and wholesale. Bear in mind we were still tobacco growers at heart and in practice. This was just a small step toward the change that we would have to make.

Source: RAFI-USA

In the early 1990s, John Vollmer, a third-generation tobacco and small grain farmer, knew that the outlook for tobacco farming was bleak. Between cuts in tobacco quotas, cheap imports and increased regulations, tobacco farming no longer made economic sense. “My main goal was to keep the farm in the family for the next generation,” Vollmer said.

For Vollmer and his family, that meant “unhooking” from tobacco production and being open to new techniques as they kept an eye on the practical aspects of making a living.

“In 1992,” he said, “we looked at strawberries and saw they were a very good crop.” Moreover, Vollmer had seen the number of farms dwindle in his area from about 250 in the 1970s to just 30. He realized that organic production might provide a means to keep the farm viable. Finally, after learning of the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to eliminate methyl bromide for disease control, Vollmer decided that organic was the way to go.

Heartened by the fact that scientists at North Carolina State University were focusing on organic production to help make farms more profitable, Vollmer started asking for help.

“The extension agents would come to the farm and tap on my head lightly,” he said of their effort to introduce him little by little to the concepts of organic farming. “They’d leave an article on the counter about how chemicals might affect earthworms, and eventually it would sink in.”

Vollmer strongly recommends that other growers move into the process gently, and build up the soil through compost and cover crops. “I knew my soils were in the same condition as everyone else’s – basically sand with a little bit of nutrients and everything burned out. If I was going into organic, I knew I better put something in.”

Vollmer also recommends that farmers thoroughly evaluate what specific equipment they will need for organic farming. In his case, tools such as plastic mulch and drip irrigation helped bring about a successful transition. Now, Vollmer finds organic strawberries easy to grow because the plastic mulch and drip irrigation help with both weed and insect control: The plastic helps conserve moisture, keeps soil disease off plants and helps eliminate spider mites. (The plastic provides a solid layer off which he can use a high-pressure sprayer to bounce insecticidal soap onto the bottom of the leaves.)

While Vollmer does not farm all his fields organically, he has been so persuaded by improvements to soil quality, pH and water-holding capacity, that he applies many of the same techniques, such as compost and cover crops, to his non-organic fields.

Vollmer finds great success from direct marketing, and does not wholesale any product. “Every time we wholesale, we get beat up,” he said. He and his family direct market all of their fresh market vegetables and fruits through five farm stands and at the farm. Bringing people to the farm provides entertainment for families and a boost in profits for Vollmer. On the farm, he and his family offer “u-pick” strawberries and sell strawberry ice cream and strawberry shortcake.

Source: VollmerFarm