American Family Farmer

Timothy Gertson is a farmer, on the Gulf Coast of Texas,with five generations of rice farming in his family. His 2,000 acres at G5 Farms are dictated by dollars, and in 2016, he 19s found a profit window in organic corn. Agriculture is in his blood. Yet even for a man with years of experience under his belt, the shift from conventional to organic agriculture was a veritable obstacle course. And he 19s only growing one crop.G5 Farms has gained full organic certification, but Gertson says the application process was lengthy and he was consistently frustrated with open-ended questions. He turned in 80 pages of paperwork to the Texas Department of Agriculture, including forms, maps, and FSA records. He says 1cIt was a headache. I had to fill it out by hand and it sure seems like an antiquated system. You can certify through private entities, but I want to know every detail I 19m signing up for. I don 19t want to be on the hook for something I didn 19t read. 1d