Organic farmer dares to dream big
The founder of one of the largest organic produce farms in Indiana says “Farming’s not for sissies.”
Matt Ewer, 37, is the latest generation of agriculturalists to tackle the challenges of organic farming in Indiana.
The state doesn’t exactly have the climate that favors organic farming. It’s often too hot or too cold, with subtropic-like humidity in the growing season. There are fierce and frequent storms and lots of insects and disease. Plus, the state’s ag culture caters to row-crop farmers, who stick to corn and soybeans and want little to do with lettuce and the like.
But Ewer has clearly tapped into something: a fast-growing consumer appetite for organic, locally grown eats. And a willingness to pay for it.
He’s doing what few organic produce farms in the state have pulled off: Achieving scale, so that his farm pumps out produce by the pallet load and he can compete in price with big out-of-state growers.
The model for what Ewer is doing is a thriving, well-known organic produce grower near Seattle called Full Circle Farm. Ewer was manager there for five years before returning to his native Indiana to raise a family.
David King, program manager for local foods at the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, calls Ewer “a leader in the growth of the buy-local movement in Indiana.”
“I’m sure he has the largest farming operation producing diversified (organic) products” in Indiana, King says.
Ewer opened his organic farm five years ago in Hamilton County, with an initial 15 acres. He needed to grow organic veggies to reliably supply the 15,000 or so customers of his Green BEAN produce delivery company in Indianapolis.
The farm now spreads over 60 leased acres and bears the quaint name Feel Good Farm.
“I like to press the boundaries,” Ewer says. “We’re not trying to go small. We’re trying to go big. I’d like to see this farm be 500 acres.”
He goes on. “I do think there needs to be a several-hundred-acre organic farm that is really pumping out pallets (of produce). That’s the way you change the game.”