My husband's family owns a farm of about 120 acres. No one lives on it and the land is currently leased to conventional farmers. The relatives that farmed it years ago are either deceased or in nursing homes. The family would like to keep it in the family. My husband has expressed interest in building a home on it when he retires and continuing to lease part of it, or perhaps doing something with it ourselves. I am an organic gardener but I am not a farmer. If anyone has any experience in converting a farm to organic, or has managed to keep a family farm in the family without going broke, please share your advice with me. Thanks!

Check out www.saucecafe.com for info about Missouri's Local Organic Farmers. I don't have any of their contact information but I know that they would be more than happy to talk to you. They are all working small, organic, family owned farms and some have had to convert the land from conventional to organic, so you'll find a wealth of info there. Also look for Terra Bella Farm. One of the farmers is Delisa Lewis, and she is very knowledgeable. I'll look around and see if I can come up with any specific contact names/addresses. good luck and good for you!

I would suggest that you contact thye organic certifier in your state and tell them your situation.

I have converted 5 acres to organic produce production from conventional grain production. It takes time and a lot of hard physical labor to do a good job of it and it takes money. It also takes a lot of knowledge which I did not have in the beginning but worked closely with my cetifier and learned a lot about how to rehab land and about organic/sustainable growing in general.

I would suggest that you really think hard about what you want to do with the land. A farm must make money or it is not really a farm. So that would be the first thing to think about-what do you want to grow? Grain crops? produce? livestock? a mix of all 3? Where will you market? To a wholesaler? direct to the public? CSA? How much time are you willing to put into this project? My husband and I put in together about 100 hours a week year 'round to keep the farm profitable and fertile.

You may want to consider taking on a young organic farmer or farm family who has experience but no farm to work with you. This could be a major win win situation. You get to save the farm and not be worked to death in your retirement and a young farmer gets a chance to farm.