Organic Producer Profile
Dana Farm: Lumberton, Mississippi
"I do not proselytize organics. I just do what I am doing. And I have
been doing it for 30 years. If you don’t want to believe that organics
can be done in the South, that’s OK. Or you can see what I am doing.”
As a graduate student at the University of California in San Diego, Tom
Dana became ill spending too much time in the library and not eating
right. The campus doctors told him that he needed to eat food that
was “more readily digestible.” One of those “readily digestible foods”
was soybeans, and the only place that Tom could buy soybeans was at
a health food store. After talking with people at the store, Tom decided
to grow some of his own food in a back yard garden. Thus started Tom’s
love of growing plants.
After working several years as an oceanographer, Tom found the “politics
of the workplace detestable” and he and his wife, Sue Ann, moved back
to his home state of Mississippi. They chose a poorly-located piece of
land, and Tom started growing a garden, planting fruit trees, and “learning
how to farm by doing it.” The Dana farm has always been a partnership
between Tom and Sue Ann. Tom handles the production work, while
Sue Ann serves as “budget director, tax expert, marketing coordinator,
harvesting assistance, landscaper, domestic support, spiritual inspiration,
and reality check.”
Tom warns beginning organic growers not to make the same mistakes
Sue Ann and he made when choosing their farm. “Location,” he stresses, “is very important.” Your farm should be located close to markets, it
should not be located in a frost pocket, it should not be next to a wildlife
refuge, nor should it be near farmers that use aerial-applied pesticides.
Tom speaks from experience on these recommendations, since his farm
fails the first three tests.
Tom’s farming practices center around building organic matter by frequently
adding green manures and mulch to his land. Since he began
farming in 1976, he has tried “almost every green manure available.”
Currently, he uses crimson clover as a winter cover crop and volunteer
barnyard, crow foot, goose, and crab grass as summer cover crops.
Dividing his 6-acre market garden area into 14 plots, he rotates at least
two plots into fallow each year to rejuvenate them and build up organic
matter. He mulches his cropped plots extensively, putting a heavy layer
of mulch on the walkways between his 3-foot beds, then adjusting the
amount of mulch on the bed to the type of crop being grown, the weather
conditions, and crop maturity. To guarantee a ready supply of mulch,
he maintains a 10-acre hay field planted to bahaigrass overseeded with
crimson clover.
Having decided in 1979 not to use manure as an input, Tom relies on
slow-release, mined (non-synthetic) minerals as sources for nutrients
other than nitrogen. He limes his sandy soil every three years using a
marl limestone. For readily available nitrogen during cool weather when
decomposition is slow, Tom relies on soybean meal. He applies seaweed
meal on his high-value cropland to supply micronutrients.
Tom claims to have tried “every possible marketing venture you can
imagine.” When he first started, consumer knowledge of organic food
was limited. He sold his crop to the only available “organic market” at
the time, a food co-op in New Orleans that later turned into a private
business. However, for the past 18 years, Tom’s major market outlet has
been a pay-as-you-go (rather than annual shares) CSA. People participating
in this CSA are able to have fresh produce from Tom’s garden year-round
(in most years).
Tom almost did not become certified under the NOP. Not one to be bothered
with keeping exacting records, he disliked the amount of paperwork
required under the NOP. However, he did become certified, since he felt
that he needed the certification to remain competitive in a volatile market.
Contact:
Tom and Sue Ann Dana
277 Hurricane Creek Rd.
Lumberton, MS 39455
601-796-4406