Meet the Farmers Out-Innovating Big Ag

Ever wonder what real innovation looks like? Hint: It's not always about the latest tech gadget.

I've been farming for nearly two decades, and I thought I'd seen it all. But Stanton Martin and his crew at Martin Farm keep proving me wrong – and I couldn't be more fired up about it. These folks joined our Grass Roots family back in 2019, and they've become the most innovative farms in our co-op.

Here's the kicker: they're doing it with horse-drawn equipment and limited technology.

Due to their Mennonite beliefs, they can't use certain technologies most of us take for granted. But watching them work is like watching a quiet symphony unfold. They've rigged up a system that sucks chicken shavings straight out of their brooder and blows them directly onto the compost pile 100 feet away. No wheelbarrows, no wasted steps, just smart farming. And get this – they built from scratch a hydraulic mini "tractor" with a winch system that moves chicken coops to fresh pasture daily. That same homemade contraption runs the hydraulics on a conveyor belt they fabricated to make loading more efficient.

This is how they've organized their operation: Four farms working together like a well-oiled machine. One farm focuses entirely on brooding the baby chicks – giving them the best start in life. Then three other farms take over once those birds are ready to hit the pasture and do their magic as soil doctors. They share equipment, knowledge, and labor. When one farm needs help, the others show up.

I joined them on a rainy spring evening recently as they caught chickens. Now, catching chickens in the rain isn't for the faint of heart – we need to keep birds comfortable while avoiding stuck vehicles. As the pasture turned to soup, they called in a neighbor with a massive tractor to help get the chickens out safely.

What happened next stopped me in my muddy tracks.

Young men in their late teens and twenties came pouring in to help. With the rural brain drain sucking our communities dry, you rarely see young adults in rural America these days. But this night was different. Here was the next generation, working alongside their elders, learning the trade, investing their futures in the land. They weren't scrolling through phones or heading to cities for "better opportunities." They were right here, in the rain and mud, building something real.

They help each other out.

That simple sentence might be the most revolutionary thing I've written all week. I know the statistics – how isolation and stress are literally killing farmers at rates that would shock most folks. In a food system where Big Ag's got us by the throat, where neighbors compete instead of collaborate, where too many of us work alone until we can't take it anymore, these folks are showing us a different way. They're proving that innovation isn't about fancy gadgets – it's about community, creativity, and the simple act of showing up for one another.

Makes you wonder: What else have we been told we "need" that's really just keeping us from the simple solutions right in front of us?

Your farmer,

Cody