“No-tillers think we’re tillage people, and tillage people think we’re no-tillers. We do cultivate, and the only thing we use tillage for is weed control," says Allan Brooks, a Wisconsin grower who is a no-till vegetable pioneer.

Cory Atkins is a rare example of a young, first generation commercial farmer in an aging and family-centric industry. Although he grew up on a hobby farm with a roadside market and was tutored by an uncle who farms, he has taken it upon himself to obtain a production agriculture degree and expand the acres under his management.