REX OBERHELMAN: $27,000 (Net!) from Five Organic Acres

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Actually, I can't explain why the thing works. We've had people from the Department of Energy look at it, and they've said that according to engineering formulas, it shouldn't work. But it does. It kept this single-paned greenhouse warm last winter for just $3.85 a day. And we put one in a friend's house to replace his gas furnace. The previous November, he'd spent $286 for gas. This November was the third coldest on record up here, yet with the friction flow heater, he paid only $63.50 for electricity.

We even had the electric company come out to check it. They've put four or five meters out here to see if their meter readings were off, but they didn't find anything.

PLOWBOY: That sounds almost unbelievable.

REX: I know, but I'm convinced that it works. If it's 20° below zero outside and you come inside and the greenhouse is so warm — 60° or 70° — that you have to take most of your clothes off to be comfortable, you know that the thing works.

PLOWBOY: Rex, you've pushed yourself awfully hard the last five years. You've learned how to grow and market grade-A produce and how to make a decent living truck farming. Now, you could just stand pat and keep running your operation. But you're not. Next year, you're going to make the quantum leap of trying to help 50 other farmers succeed as you have. Why?

REX: Five years ago, when I started my project, the farm economy in this area was still pretty good. Most farmers here had over a million dollars in assets. Their land was valued at $4,000 an acre.

Now they're broke. Their land is going for $650 or $675 an acre, and there are no bidders for it even at that price. Banks are closing — we've had three banks within a hundred miles of here close already. The farmers have got overproduction, no market, and huge debts. Consequently, 50% of them are facing bankruptcy and foreclosure in the next 18 months! They're being forced out of their livelihood. Families are splitting up, people are committing suicide — the people out here are under tremendous stress right now.

It's creating a ripple effect. Innocent individuals that are not in the farming business — filling station operators, grocery store managers, plumbers, and others — are losing their livelihoods, too. The problem is just compounding.

I've been through that loss myself. I was down and out and totally depressed. I know the hurt. So I want to help.

Two years ago, I started thinking about what I might be able to do. At first I thought I'd just show people how to do what I was doing. But then I realized that, hey, if I got five of my neighbors to do this, we'd all be competing for the same grocery, restaurant, and wholesale markets, and soon we'd be in a price war with one another. Then, just like the big farmers, we'd drive ourselves right out of business.

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