COLUMBUS – You want to eat organic and you want to eat local. It’s not always easy, since organic food sales grew by about 30 percent last year while the state ranks only seventh in the nation in the number of organic farming operations.
The number is bound to go up as more conventional farmers try to increase their share of the organic market, currently owned by the state’s estimated 950 organic farming operations.
Renee Winner, owner of REAL Winner Farms in De Graff, in Logan County, is transitioning the four dairies she and her husband operate with their children to organic because their farming practices didn’t mesh with their personal lifestyle.
“For the last 30 year we have eaten organic. To be able to marry the way that we live and how we make our living is really something that we’ve talked about and planned about for years but just didn’t think we’d be able to get it done,” she explained.
Three years ago, the Winners felt they needed to “get big or get out,” and made the decision to go organic with help from organic transition services available through the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association.