Heather White is a CCOF Foundation Organic Transition Grantee.
Heather White grew up on a Christmas tree farm in Washington State, where she participated in 4-H and helped her father plant each year’s crop of trees. After high school, she joined the military and met her future husband Bryon while they were both stationed on active duty at Travis Air Force Base.
Bryon had grown up helping on his family’s 30-acre ranch, which he took over managing as an adult, so Heather joined him and threw herself into helping with harvest and office work. Soon, they had purchased a 20-acre walnut farm with a huller, dryer, and custom harvest business.
“It was his dream to build a family empire where our kids could be raised on the farm and would inherit the business when we retired,” Heather remembers. “Sadly, he passed away from cancer just a few years later, leaving me and our one-year-old daughter the ranch.” Using skills from her bachelor’s degree in finance as well as her 16 years of military experience, Heather is making sure the ranch’s legacy continues.
“It’s because of my late husband that I want to transition to organic.” she explains. “Before he was diagnosed, he was strong, healthy, and never went to the doctor for anything. Though we’ll never know for sure what caused his cancer, I believe the chemicals he used his whole life, living on the farm, were the cause. I believe our food and the environment we’re exposed to have a huge impact on the health of our families.”
Heather wants to transition her land to organic production to help other families like her own. “I feel a duty to make sure that my kids don’t get sick, and a duty to grow food that is ultimately healthier for others,” she says. “It’s my dream to pass this responsibility of stewardship of the environment on to my kids. When I heard about this grant, it seemed like the perfect fit to help me in the process of transitioning to organic.”
The CCOF Foundation is proud to support producers like Heather White with the Organic Transition grant, which provides three-year grants of $10,000 per year to farmers transitioning their land to organic production. Grantees receive multi-year funding and 1:1 organic technical assistance.
If you would like to contribute to the success of Organic Transition grantees like Heather White, please contact the CCOF Foundation’s Donor Relations Manager Shawna Rodgers, at srodgers@ccof.org to learn more.
