Successful small farms near sprawling big cities. And more fresh organic veggies for people who live in those cities.

Those are two of the hoped-for results of a four-year, $400,000, U.S. Department of Agriculture-supported study at Ohio State University.

Led by scientists with the Organic Food and Farming Education and Research (OFFER) program on the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center's (OARDC) Wooster, Ohio, campus, the project is evaluating eight ways for farmers — specifically, those who farm on the edges of urban areas — to switch to organic vegetable production.

"Paths of Transition: Strategies for Peri-urban Organic Farmers," now in its second year, is funded by the Organic Transitions Program of USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service.

"Peri-urban farmers face a special set of circumstances that differentiates them from farmers operating in more rural areas, and there are potential advantages and disadvantages to that," said Matt Kleinhenz, project coordinator and an assistant professor in Ohio State's Department of Horticulture and Crop Science.

Among the advantages of farming near cities: proximity to thousands or even hundreds of thousands of potential customers, plus lower transportation costs.

Drawbacks, however, include high land prices and objections by seemingly more and more neighbors — many of them new, non-farmers or both — to the use of farm chemicals.

Going organic is one way for growers to offset those problems, tap a growing market and, if all goes well, have a profitable business, Kleinhenz said.

Organic farmers, among other things, rely strongly on crop rotation, cultivation, natural predators and other ways to manage weeds, insect pests and soil fertility. The decreased chemical use that results is likely to please the farm's neighbors, Kleinhenz said.

And organic vegetables bring premium prices — sometimes more than double what their conventional counterparts earn. Profit potential per acre is thus often higher, a boon for farmers whose land holdings are small but expensive.

New Farm's June 15 Organic Price Index, for instance, reported eastern U.S. wholesale prices of $23.25 for 20 pounds of organic broccoli vs. $13 for conventionally grown broccoli; $30.25 for 48 pounds of organic carrots vs. $13 for conventional; $31.50 for 24-count organic romaine lettuce vs. $17 for conventional; and $44 for 24-count organic celery vs. $18.50 for conventional.

USDA's national organic standards — found online at http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOP/standards.html — require a three-year transition period between stopping the use of synthetic chemicals and other conventional crop practices and applying for organic certification.

During that time, a farmer must follow organic practices, the crops may be unqualified to earn organic premiums, and the soil-, crop- and ecosystem-improvement strategies that typify organic farming haven't fully kicked in.

It's often a rocky time, Kleinhenz said, and the lack of research evaluating transition methods has only made it rockier.

The project aims to rectify that. Its goals are to evaluate the economic and environmental impacts of eight major strategies; characterize the "signature" — the weed pressure, soil conditions, and crop health and quality — of each strategy; and then, by knowing those impacts and signatures and by working with OSU Extension educators, conduct workshops that help interested farmers choose the best-suited system for their farm.

The eight strategies are based on four approaches — clean fallow, mixed-species hay, low-intensity vegetables and high-intensity vegetables under high tunnels — with each being tested with two subtreatments: adding no organic amendments to the soil and applying composted dairy manure every year.

The strategies vary in intensity. Each requires different amounts of time, money and attention, from a little to a lot. Each brings in a different amount of income, from none to quite a bit. And each improves the soil and farm ecosystem at a different pace.

Least intensive is the clean-fallow/no-amendments strategy. Most intensive is high-intensity vegetable production under high tunnels with dairy compost. Both achieve the transition to organic farming, as do the other six. The former takes the least work and generates no income. The latter takes the most work and potentially earns the most money.

Situations vary from farm to farm — based on how much time a farmer has, how much cash flow he or she needs, his or her interests, and so on — and so too will decisions, Kleinhenz said. The breadth of the study reflects that diversity and aims to assist a wide range of farmers. When it comes to planning a switch to organic, "It's not 'one size fits all,'" he said.

Under the clean-fallow system, the soil is tilled periodically to stimulate weed germination, destroy weed seedlings, draw down the weed seed bank in the soil and break up disease and insect pest cycles. A weed-suppressive cover crop may be seeded in fall and tilled-in in spring.

The mixed species hay system uses Lancelot plantain, chicory, orchardgrass, Duo festulolium, alfalfa, red clover, white clover and timothy. Nitrogen fixation, natural mortality of weed seeds, increased soil organic matter, disrupted disease and insect pest cycles, and abundant, high-quality hay and forage, are the benefits.

The low intensity vegetable system grows potatoes the first year, winter squash and radishes the second, peas and sweet potatoes the third, and lettuce and tomatoes the fourth. All are potentially high-value crops, Kleinhenz said. And all are well suited to organic farming because of their range of maturities and their suitability to organic pest- and weed-control methods.

High tunnels — key to the intensive vegetable strategy — are large, usually unheated, plastic-covered structures that can accommodate moderate-sized equipment. The crops and sequences used inside are similar to those of the low-intensity system, but spring and fall plantings of cool-season vegetables — radishes, lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, beets — bracket the main season crops.

High tunnels lengthen cropping cycles — sometimes in Ohio to 11 months a year — and lead to higher total yields. Benefits include longer growing and marketing seasons and almost a year-round market presence.

High tunnels also let farmers plant, maintain and harvest crops when soils are wet after rain. That's often a time when uncovered crops are unworkable.

For example, despite Ohio's abundant spring rains and wet soils this year, work in high tunnels has gone on without interruption, Kleinhenz said.

"Nearly continuous, high-volume, high-value production can be particularly useful where land costs are high," the team explained in its project proposal. "(High tunnels allow) the grower to produce crops that may otherwise be difficult or impossible to produce in the field. This should have unique value in the competitive but niche market-laden peri-urban environment."

Each year, the overall ecological health and economic profitability of each strategy will be measured. The result will be an accurate assessment of each system's costs and benefits — vital knowledge for comparing the systems and deciding which way to go, Kleinhenz said.

Ultimately, the effort will benefit and further link farmers, their neighbors and Ohio's economy, he said.

"Ohio has an incredibly robust agricultural economy," Kleinhenz said. "But at the same time, the state is urbanizing. Our metropolitan areas are growing. So the connections between active farmers and active consumers are growing, too. There simply are more people in close contact with farms than there may have ever been before.

"For farming to remain a significant and valued way of life and source of income, farmers operating at the edge of these metropolitan centers, especially ones who want to farm organically, need specific information."

Six other Ohio State specialists, graduate students and staff are assisting in the organic study. The project wraps up in 2006.