Organic farmers are doing well

The Register Guard: In 1978, growers who made up the fledgling organic farming industry in the Willamette Valley were, in the words of David Lively, "knocking the hell out of each other in the marketplace."

Although they shared common values and even socialized, they didn't coordinate what they grew, creating gluts that drove down prices, said Lively, who was one of those growers. When it came to marketing their wares, he said, they were "cutthroat."

"It was a lot of very small farms all trying to do the same thing and going to the same stores," said another grower, Jack Gray of Winter Green Farm in Noti. "It didn't work to have everyone competing against each other."