The Patrick Madden Award for Sustainable Agriculture

Ron Macher, Clark, Missouri

Many would call Ron Macher a veritable legend in sustainable agriculture. His 80-acre farm in Clark, Mo., has netted up to $1.32 a square foot on sales of Hair Sheep sausage, whole hog sausage, and vegetables grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Macher formulated a complete, high-protein feed for heirloom chickens and developed "Macher's Freedom" open-pollinated corn. In today's world of increasingly mass-produced feed and hybrid seeds, Macher's plant breeding and homemade rations are especially noteworthy.

Farming is just one of Macher's many talents. He is the creator and publisher of Small Farm Today magazine, and the founding organizer of the National Small Farm Trade Show and Conference, the largest annual small farm show in the United States.

"There is no better farmer who embodies the ideals of sustainability and has worked so diligently to spread the sustainable agriculture word around the country," said Mary Hendrickson, associate director of the Community Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture Program at the University of Missouri.

That's a lot of work for a "disgruntled former cattle farmer."

In 1964, Ron Macher was like a lot of other Missouri farmers. He had a job in town and a farm in the country. He raised cattle and later added pigs and sheep to gain a steadier income to support his family. Twenty years later, the bottom fell out in rural America.

	"Sustainable agriculture is about the big picture - how one thing relates to another. That's what SARE does, too." ~Ron Macher

"By 1984, the farm crisis was wiping out a lot of farmers, and I was totally disgruntled with the system," said Macher. "I didn't even see the point of keeping records if I couldn't control the prices."

Macher's conversion to sustainable agriculture was born with a practical idea - a strategy to use his empty farm ponds. He started raising catfish and took them to town, his first experience in direct marketing. "Nobody asked me about pond conditions," he recalled. "They just asked how much the catfish cost. I got $2.75 a pound, which was more than I got for anything else I grew. And they were happy to pay it."

His experience with the catfish opened his eyes to an obvious, but hardly universal, truth. The 75 percent of farms in America that are less than 180 acres have to do things differently. In time, Macher was experimenting with a variety of production methods - reduced chemical inputs, different crops and animals, home-grown seed, among many others - and began issuing a four-page newsletter with his activities and results. Response was so great the newsletter expanded to 12 pages, and kept adding readers.

By 1992, Macher changed the name to Small Farm Today, "The Original How-to Magazine of Alternative and Traditional Crops, Livestock, and Direct Marketing." The magazine now has a readership of 30,000. In November 1992, Macher and Small Farm Today created and hosted the first National Small Farm Trade Show & Conference in Columbia, Mo. Today, it attracts 300 exhibits, 60 workshops, and attendees from 42 states and five foreign countries.

When he's not farming, running a magazine, or producing a juggernaut conference, Macher speaks. He talks at conferences and fairs, over fence rails and at kitchen tables.

"Ron continually provides support for small farmers and their new businesses," said Joan Benjamin, program coordinator of the Sustainable Agriculture Program at the Missouri Department of Agriculture, who nominated him. "He lends his name and expertise as a speaker and exhibitor at numerous events, and his presence lends legitimacy."

A former member of SARE's North Central Region administrative council, Macher himself received a 2002 Research and Education grant to create and distribute a farm-planning computer program that could develop a farm plan in an hour or so.

	"There is no better farmer who embodies the ideals of sustainability and has worked so diligently to spread the sustainable agriculture word around the country." ~Mary Hendrickson, Community Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture Program, University of Missouri

"Sustainable agriculture is about the big picture - how one thing relates to another. That's what SARE does, too," said Macher. "It was eye-opening to see a program help people the way they need to be helped. It is important to a farmer who wants to try something new, something that might make the farm more profitable."

Macher feels a tremendous responsibility to lead sustainable ag into the broader farming community. "Ron continually tries new ideas and explores new marketing niches, demonstrating to other farmers how to increase profitability through ongoing innovation," Benjamin said. "Ron is amazingly innovative and resourceful - he takes my breath away with his energy, enthusiasm and dedication to sustainable agriculture.

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