These interviews have shown a willingness on the part of organic growers to experiment and to learn from their failures. Organic production strategies are site-specific so that what works on one farm may not work on another. Some basic principles apply crop rotations that include small grains and leguminous cover crops, timely mechanical weed control, use of manures, etc. Doing so is not without risk, especially during the transition years. These organic growers work outside the comfort zone provided by a simple corn and bean rotation with chemical weed control and soluble fertilizers.
Organic farmers are risk-takers.
As a group they keep informed by reading books and magazines, by attending farm tours and organizational meetings and by exchanging information with other growers. This network helps each of the organic farmers interviewed to resist pressures from skeptics among friends, neighbors and in the state s agricultural establishment. They are not immune to these pressures, but the courage of their convictions keeps them going. They each agree that they would continue to farm organically even if premium organic prices disappeared. That is the final test of organic farming s sustainability.