Beckwith is the first president of the association in its 18-year history to be elected by its members. She is slated to serve a two-year term, during which time she hopes to oversee the transition to a more accessible organization, where members can share information more easily. Updating TOFGA's website and pushing for more autonomy for its nine regional directors are among the changes she hopes to tackle sooner rather than later.
"There is a lot of interest in organics and sustainable agriculture now, and the opportunities are there for people who want to do it," she said. "We (TOFGA) would like to be a facilitator of information, a place where people can interact. I'd like for a soybean grower in East Texas to be able to share information with somebody growing milo in Pearsall. They might find some areas of commonality that they can share and both benefit from."
Most of the growth Beckwith sees first hand in the organics industry is in the area of livestock production, mainly because she is an assistant general manager of Coyote Creek Organic Feed Mill, the first organic feed mill in the state. She also co-owns the 20-acre farm, Shades of Green, where she raises and sells roasting chickens, eggs and beef.
TOFGA, established in 1992 as the Texas Organic Growers Association, is a publicly supported, non-profit association whose members include ranchers, farmers, commercial plant growers, retailers, wholesalers, processors distributors and consumers. The association holds five or six New Farmer Workshops each year.
"We're going to grow one farm at a time," Beckwith said. "We're going to help people learn how they can make their farm economically sustainable.
"Farming is not as simple as a lot of people think, whether it's a conventional farm or organics. There are a lot of logistics to learn and important decisions to be made -- from buying the land to marketing what you grow on it. We want to make it a little simpler for the people who want to grow organically or at least sustainably."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, is offering financial assistance to growers transitioning to organic, or those whose products are already certified as organic. They can apply to receive up to $20,000 annually or $80,000 during any six-year period through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP.) Sign-ups for the program continue through March 12 at NRCS offices across the state.
The practices funded for an individual under the 2010 Organic Initiative are determined by specific resource concerns. The practices include crop rotation, cover crops, nutrient management, pest management, prescribed grazing and forage harvest management.
Beckwith said a lot of organic growers, especially those just starting out, don't know about programs that are available for them. Others might know about the programs, but aren't sure about how to sign up for them.
"Some of our members haven't had as much experience working with USDA or Extension as more conventional growers," she said. "We don't have to do everything ourselves. That goes back to making TOFGA a place where our members can go and get information from other sources as well as from other growers and organic groups. We want to let people know what resources are out there."
