At 180 Degree Farm, Food is Medicine

Words by Jennifer Kornegay
Photos by Derek Bedwell

Farmers work in concert with Mother Nature to transform seeds into food. At 180 Degree Farm, owners Scott and Nicole Tyson are doing just that, producing nutrient-dense, organic fruits and vegetables, as well as lamb, and chicken and duck eggs in Sharpsburg, Georgia. But the farm itself is the product of a transformation; the Tysons took a personal tragedy and turned it into a triumph for their entire community. 

The farm’s story starts with Mason, Tyson’s 21-year-old son, who’s now a chef whipping up palate-pleasing dishes at Lazy Betty, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Atlanta. His future is visibly bright, but when he was 3 years old, after a stage 4 neuroblastoma tumor was found in his abdomen, it looked bleak. His parents were worried but also perplexed. How did a toddler have cancer when there was no family history? If there were environmental causes, what could those be? “We were researching food, trying to find answers but also identify what we could feed him that would be beneficial to his health,” Nicole says. 

The farther down the rabbit hole she went—learning about harms of the GMOs, pesticides, and herbicides common in traditional agriculture—the more she became convinced that food could be both culprit and part of the cure.

“It’s garbage in, garbage out,” she says. “Our diet is strongly linked to our health, and everyone needs clean, organic, nutritionally dense foods, but cancer patients really need them.”

When the Tyson’s search for what their son needed struck out, they looked at a piece of land they already owned and decided to grow and raise what they were looking for themselves. “There was nothing in our area, so we started a farm for us, but also for others,” Nicole says. In 2009, they founded 180 Degree Farm, a nonprofit that’s fighting cancer through farming.

Knowing that good food has healing powers, its mission is simple but multilayered, as Nicole explains. “Many of us have so much in our diets right now that is hazardous to our health, and everything we can replace with something cleaner can make a positive difference,” she says. “It’s essential to arm our bodies to fight illness.” Eating organic alone didn’t get rid of Mason’s cancer, but it did give his body what it needed for the battle.

Nicole believes “You are what you eat” is true, and the adage applies  not only to cancer but to a wide range of ailments, including autoimmune diseases and more. No matter the health problem, 180 Degree Farm can play a role in the solution, and it’s doing so every day. “More than 75 percent of our customers are sick—with cancer, severe food allergies, autoimmune disorders—and our foods help them,” Nicole says. 

To ensure everyone who can benefit from its harvests has access regardless of economic situation, the farm started its Food Fight initiative, which has donated more than 60,000 pounds of its produce to people who otherwise couldn’t afford it. They’re nourished by the usual Southern-garden suspects—tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, sweet potatoes—but also by turmeric and ginger, lemons and ruby red grapefruits, and rare citrus varieties too, such as yuzu and finger limes. Every fruit and veggie equips patients with key vitamins, minerals, and anti-inflammatory properties. And at any given time, the farm is serving 30 to 40 people with the program, proving the need. “Between our county and the one right next to the farm, there are 1,400-plus new cases of cancer diagnosed each year,” Nicole says, “and the cost of cancer care, even with insurance, is staggering.” 

Food Fight participants—often those newly diagnosed and actively undergoing treatments or survivors whose cancer has come back—get a punch card they use to select $20 worth of food each week for five weeks, and longer if needed. The farm serves other cancer patients too. Many who can buy the food without assistance fuel themselves with its wholesome harvests, and many others not dealing with an illness choose to eat cleaner by shopping the farm’s weekly markets.

Using food as medicine is a holistic approach to healing, but the more traditional medical world is on board with the idea, too; the farm routinely gets referrals from area hospitals and local doctors. And 180 Degree Farm isn’t just growing good food, it’s enthusiastically spreading the good news about our diets’ ability to improve health outcomes. “We’ve conducted nutritional educational workshops and hosted several food- and farm-related documentary screenings, and we’re also creating a portal on our website where cancer patients can easily access all this information,” Nicole says.

The goal is to continue to transform the way its community eats. And there’s more to the farm than food; there’s also a therapeutic flower garden. “We know that exposure to the chemicals plants put off is good for you,” she says, “but simply hanging out among the blooms, listening to birds, is healing too.”

Sharing all they’ve learned on their personal journey is significant to Nicole, including how far away they started from where they are now. “The farm’s name represents a reversal,” she says. “My background is in advertising for fast food, so the farm is a turn 180 degrees to a different mindset.” But every bite of fresh, clean produce from the farm circles 365 degrees, coming right back to the earth. It’s why Nicole puts emphasis on nurturing the soil, adding no chemicals and doing as little tilling as possible. “The healthier the soil, the healthier the plant, and the better for our cancer patients,” she says. 

To keep serving cancer patients, in addition to purchases made at its weekly farm market, 180 Degree Farm depends on donations and free labor from volunteers, who assist with weeding, mulching, and other farm chores. There’s still plenty of work for Nicole and her team though. “Farming is hard, but any time a patient tells us how much better our food tastes, how it’s positively impacting how they’re doing and feeling, that’s all we need to be reinvigorated and recommitted to our mission,” she says. “We will continue to research and learn even better ways nutrition can help the body heal from disease and sickness. And we’ll never stop, thanks to all those who support us.”