MNN - 40 Farmers Under 40
TrueFields started as a dream shared by four friends: Matt and Jerica Cadman, Dave Wolff and David Sanders. These LeTourneau University alumni all wanted to see the naturally raised food supply increase in East Texas, where mass-produced fried-chicken restaurants abound and many people suffer from common U.S. food-related ailments like obesity and diabetes. Matt was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2003, and having been told that the medical answer was either drugs, colon-removal surgery or both, he and Jerica started seeking out more favorable solutions. They're both engineers and weren't satisfied with "That's all we can do. As it turned out, it wasn't.
The Cadmans first began buying organic groceries, and then learned more about the importance of food source and preparation, such as sprouting grains and buying locally raised, grass-fed beef. They got involved with a farm in Hallsville, Texas, and soon an opportunity opened up for them to start gardening and marketing the produce. Wolff and Sanders quickly jumped on board, and it was a successful effort by the four — every day or so after work, they'd come out and prune tomatoes, water beans and harvest cucumbers, taking it to farmers markets on the weekend or selling to friends.
The Cadmans soon began thinking about raising a family and what kind of life they wanted to pursue. Matt worked at a local satellite manufacturing company, and Jerica was finishing up her undergraduate degree in engineering with plans to go on to graduate school. But they agreed that a life with both of them home and available to their kids, and to each other, was much more appealing than the splendor of two engineering salaries. When they started looking for land, they quickly realized they'd have to take on a lot of debt to start a farm from scratch. The Cadmans, who are Christians, say they rely on a higher power to guide their lives, so they asked God to give them a farm. They saw no other way for it to work.
Their prayers were answered — the farm's owners began floating the idea of Wolff, Sanders and the Cadmans managing the entire operation, and offered Matt Cadman and Sanders positions in January 2009. Wolff agreed to keep his computer-programming job at LeTourneau to maintain income for the company they formed (TrueFields LLC) while the market was growing, and Jerica was to be full-time wife, marketer, cow milker and garden planner. They now manage and market the grass-fed operation and own their own herds of pigs and milk cows. They also grow a garden each season and plan to begin raising poultry within the next year.