Jim and Sue Keating are newcomers to the world of organic agriculture. Prior to moving to the town of Bennington in central Kansas, the couple raised a family in urban Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where Sue was a church secretary and Jim taught civil engineering at the university. When their kids moved out and the couple moved onto a 200-acre farm 10 miles north of Salina, they didn’t know it at the time, but they were at the cusp of becoming real movers and shakers for sustainable agriculture.

The first hint of their organic tendencies came when the city of Bennington discovered high nitrate levels in some of their wells. Surrounded by conventional wheat, corn and soybeans, Jim knew he wanted to farm (“I like machinery and I like the land,” the engineer explains), but he abhorred the thought of contributing to ground water contamination. So he planted his own milo, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa without chemicals.

“That’s how I started farming and somebody said, ‘hey, you’re an organic farmer,'” Jim recalls, adding that once the couple identified as organic farmers, a whole world of information, networking and marketing opportunities became available to them.

Jim and Sue took a series of short courses to get up to speed on organic techniques and got themselves certified organic. Through Kansas Organic Producers, a grain and livestock marketing cooperative, Jim’s products are shipped to throughout the nation.  He sends alfalfa hay to an organic dairy farm 600 miles away in Texas, milo to Pennsylvania and wheat to North Dakota.
The couple also grow organic pinto and black beans and asparagus, which they direct market along with their other value-added products. Sue adds value by doing on-farm milling and packaging.  She mills flour from the grain Jim harvest and makes baking mixes and breads. They take the dry beans, asparagus, bread, flour and a wide array of organic bread, pancake, pastry and bean mixes to the Salina Farmers Market on Saturdays from spring through fall.  They also sell their asparagus to three local restaurants and a seniors’ center.