 "Photo: Chelsy Lueth")
East of Marysville, in the far northern county of Marshall, there is a tiny, unincorporated township called Home. And Home is where the heart of Nancy Vogelsberg-Busch resides.
There are many farmers in Kansas, certainly many in Marshall County, but Vogelsberg-Busch’s farm is the only certified organic locker by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is able to sell labeled organic beef in Kansas. The cows are raised without antibiotics or hormones. The slaughterhouse in Frankfort where the meat is processed is certified organic, and there are no preservatives or monosodium glutamate (MSG) added to the meat. Even the spices used in the all-beef franks are certified organic.
The resulting products are Bossie’s Best fresh beef, ground beef and all-beef franks, which can be found at various locations across Kansas. In Manhattan, Vogelsberg-Busch sells exclusively through The People’s Grocery, located at 523 S. 17th St.
Jackie Keller, chapter administrator for the eastern Kansas chapter of Organic Crop Improvement Association, said becoming a certified organic producer has become more common since the National Organic Program and the federal government created laws to protect organic food.
Keller said it is illegal to label a product as “organic” unless the producer has met the strict guidelines and becomes certified. Those who do so can be subject to a $10,000 fine. However, some uncertified producers use words such as “natural,” a practice Keller says can be misleading to consumers.
“I think there’s a lot of misconceptions that it’s, quote, ‘healthy’ without realizing that it can be produced with chemicals or hormones,” said Keller. “A ‘natural’ label can mean anything, really, because there’s no standards.”
Vogelsberg-Busch is a fourth generation farmer and a strong advocate for healthy food and healthy living. She said she is grateful for the recent interest in organic foods because she feels it is important for people to know who their farmers are and where their food comes from.
“It’s preventative health care,” she said.
But, she warns, farming is not an easy lifestyle. “In theory it sounds pretty grand to farm, but in practice it’s hard work.”
The third of six children, Vogelsberg-Busch initially did not plan on becoming a farmer. She went to college with the idea of becoming a social worker because men, not women, were expected to inherit the farm.
An internship at a Navajo reservation in Arizona changed her mind, where she witnessed the fading culture of the people as the younger generations moved on to a more modern lifestyle. Inspired to get back to her roots, Vogelsberg-Busch returned to Kansas to become a farmer. She had to prove herself to everyone: her customers, her father and herself.
Life threw her another curveball when her husband divorced her, leaving her as a single mom with three children, a farm to run and a mortgage to pay. Without her husband’s health insurance, Vogelsberg-Busch was forced to take a job at Tension Envelope Corporation in Marysville, a job she still holds today after more than 13 years.
“It’s tough, leaving my kids and cows to go into town to work for health insurance,” she said. “I’m so afraid if something should happen to me they might liquidate. That’s a real fear for me because I can’t afford health insurance by just farming.”
When Vogelsberg-Busch’s father died, her family lost almost everything because he did not have insurance. The cattle were liquidated, and her mother was forced to move into a long-term care home. She said this is a sad reality for many farmers and, when she goes to work at the factory, she is surrounded by farmers just like herself.
“I just think it’s a waste,” she said. “I see them adjusting a machine to make an envelope and they should be working on their farm.”
In spite of all the hardships, Vogelsberg-Busch remains optimistic about the future of Bossie’s Best and organic farming in general. She does not have plans to sell outside of the state, in spite of interested people contacting her.
“I’m a strong advocate of not just organic, but local organic,” she said.
Keller agreed with Vogelsberg-Busch.
“Bigger producers with large acreage that have become certified has become a concern for smaller producers,” Keller said. “We really try to emphasize local organic producers.”
There are many certified Kansas organic farmers and room for many more !