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Stores cannot keep up with the demand for organic produce and dairy and grains, so there is a great niche opening up for farmers willing to try non-traditional methods.
The benefits to farmers themselves are impressive: lower cost to produce, lowered exposure to toxic soil amendments, high demand for product.
The problem for producers now is the huge quantities the buyers want to procure. Rather than working locally, WalMart and other buyers want to negotiate one contract to cover all of their needs at the lowest cost possible. This opens the way for factory farmers to come in and cheat the public by not truly practicing organic methods and to cheat the small farmers by over-growing and under-pricing them out of business.
New farmers have to bust butt to find new markets, perhaps local restaurants, hotels, hospitals, universities, health food stores. But there are a number of successful organic operations around me and I'm sure if you poke around, you'll find some brave souls near you making a go of it.
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