Organic Mississippi farming

When Charlie Munford took over his family’s Mississippi farm two years ago, he had one goal: to show that organic farming could succeed in his home state.

 

“It was a proof of concept thing for me,” says Munford, standing in the cattle pasture on the edge of his Flying M Farm one uncharacteristically cool August morning.

 

“I thought, ‘Why doesn’t this work? Why don’t we see more of this?’”

 

Munford—a bearded, bespectacled twentysomething who punctuates his conversations with frequent bursts of laughter—had seen successful organic models in other parts of the country, first at the boarding school he attended in Vermont for a semester in high school, then at Deep Springs College, a two-year, all-male school in rural California where students operate an on-campus farm. But he observed few examples of organics in his home state of Mississippi, where his family has owned farmland since the 1960s.

 

Indeed, though the national organic movement has spread from the fields of California to the shelves of Wal-Mart, it has largely missed Mississippi, prompting Kevin Riggin, the Mississippi Department of Agriculture’s (MDA) organic coordinator, to call Mississippi “the last frontier in organics.” More than 11 million acres—or 37 percent—of the state’s land are used for farming, but the MDA has certified just 23 organic growers. For comparison’s sake, New York, a state where about 7 million acres are used for agriculture, boasts more than 500 organic farms.

But there are signs of growth on organic’s final frontier. Riggin says organic farming represents the fastest-growing sector of Mississippi’s agriculture industry, with about four growers earning organic certification every year. Hoping to encourage more farmers to seek organic certification, the MDA recently joined a federal program that covers up to 75 percent of certification costs. The few Mississippi farmers that have gone organic have succeeded by cornering the blueberry market. The state’s warm climate allows growers to plant their crops weeks earlier than farmers in Northern states, and the longer growing season has allowed Mississippi to become one of the country’s top five producers of organic blueberries.         

 

A diverse cast of characters scattered across the state is working to promote sustainable agriculture in Mississippi. Along with Munford, there’s a Civil Rights Movement veteran who believes teaching young people to grow their own food can solve a host of societal ills, and a British transplant who uses her skills as a librarian and chef to bring seasonal, local eating traditions back to the land of fried pickles and gelatin salads.

 

The obstacles to organic farming in the Magnolia State, however, are formidable. Riggin blames the hot and humid climate, which creates a breeding ground for weeds and bugs — two enemies that drive all but the best-intentioned farmers to pesticides. Mississippi’s demographics also play a role in discouraging organics. With nearly 20 percent of the population living below the poverty level, there is no room in many citizens’ budgets for high-priced organic produce. Less than half of the state’s residents live in urban areas, the traditional hotspots for the organic customer base. And the state’s urban centers are hardly booming metropolises; Mississippi’s largest city, Jackson, has a metropolitan area population of around 500,000.

 

These factors notwithstanding, Munford has good reason to believe organic farming has a future in Mississippi. Much of the state used to be a flood plain for the Mississippi River, creating layers and layers of the world’s richest topsoil.

 

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