Chris and Tara Hoffner

Rowan County, North Carolina

The reasons why conventional farmers transition to organic are many, but one in particular prevails. From their 620 acre family farm in North Carolina, the story is as fresh when Chris and Tara Hoffner tell it as if it were the first time.

Chris remembers the date exactly, the morning of December 27th, 1995 that he put out a load of feed for his Holstein cows. "Within the hour, I had one hundred animals on the ground trying to die," Chris says. He called the vet immediately, who happened to have enough anti-dote on the truck to treat most of the cows. The fire department came out, neighbors showed up, and folks pitched in, holding IV bags for the downed and struggling animals. Still, 13 of the cows died outright that day, and they lost many more in the aftermath.

The culprit was Furidan, a highly toxic pesticide commonly used on corn and alfalfa to kill weevils among other things. Chris discovered the source when he found an empty jug of the mix that had gotten into the big feed mixing bin that's a fixture beside most barns. "I mean the container was empty, bone dry," Chris says. "The scariest thing is, I almost used that load of feed the previous night. If I had, the whole herd would have died. We quit using that stuff totally. I don't want my cows getting near anything like that." In spite of a community fundraiser to help the Hoffner's recover, they're struggling still from that loss. "Amazingly, that poison is still legal," Chris says. "Farmers are using it to this day and the consumers don't know. Since then my mindset was more organic than I realized."

Chris has always farmed because he knew that's what he wanted to do. He graduated North Carolina State University with a degree in Agricultural Business, and a newfound relationship with Tara. Though it was her first semester there and his last, they managed to keep hold of each other and eventually married. Tara was familiar with the farm lifestyle since her granddad had a farm when she was growing up. Today she laughs at that. "I think the silliest thing I ever did was learn how to milk and drive a tractor!" She is often called upon to pitch in.