Paul and Kristine Stecker (continued)

The town of Cabot is well known for the cheese that has been produced from local farmers' milk since 1919. The original cooperative is now owned by Agrimark, and a cheesemaking plant sits in the middle of this agricultural town.

There are a number of farms around Cabot and many have made the transition to organic production. The most exciting trend is watching farms that have stood empty for years come back to life as organic farms.

The Steckers' farm is on the hill above the town at the end of a long road. It's easy to see signs of their passions when you enter their dooryard—a well run farm, Kris' horses, and a shop where Paul rebuilds shovelhead Harley Davidsons. Paul and Kris have a strong partnership. Kris does most of the cow care and milking as well as homeschooling the couple's two children. Paul is responsible for keeping all the systems, equipment and pasture running, the field work, and running their local organic beef business.

When asked what advice he would give to young people thinking about entering farming, Paul replied, "Be realistic. Farming means you may have to look hard for rewards and sacrifice a lot of free time and retirement accounts. However, it is awesome when things go well and there's no better place to be."

The Steckers became member-owners of the Organic Valley Family of Farms cooperative in 2002. They are happy to belong to a co-op that looks out for the interests of its farmer members, a business that is protecting the integrity or organic farming and organic products. Being a part of this truth feels good.

Much of organic farming is caring for the health of the soil, the animals that feed from that soil, and the humans who benefit from the food produced from those animals. Paul says, "When a farmer buys a farm we are only a little blip in the history of that precious piece of earth. What we choose to do with it is up to us. We can nourish it and leave it for the next steward, hopefully better than we found it, or we can deplete it and turn it into more of what's wrong in this world. When an aware consumer makes an informed decision at the store, they will probably choose to reward the true organic farmer. Thank you, Organic Valley, for giving them that choice."