Sharelife Farms
March 18, 2025
Jim and Rosemary (Rosie) Thomas have been growing certified organic vegetables in Marshall, Missouri since 2004. The Thomas family has cultivated the farm since 1929. Jim Thomas transitioned the land to only farm organic produce because of his wife Rosie’s autoimmune disorder. Rosie’s condition makes her sensitive to certain chemical products commonly found in fertilizers and pesticides.
Share Life Farms sells their produce on Saturday mornings at the Columbia Farmers Market. On March 18, while wind whipped throughout central Missouri, Jim and Rosie Thomas watered their plants in preparation for selling their crops later in the week.
Jim Thomas looks out to his house from his farm in Marshall, Missouri in front of his hoop houses where he grows vegetables. Jim Thomas has been farming vegetables on Share Life Farms since 1999 to accommodate for his wife’s autoimmune disorder. Before then, Thomas farmed corn, beans and wheat.
Rosie Thomas pets her dog Little Star while sitting in a Club Car on Share Life Farms. Throughout her life, Rosie was exposed to many chemicals that may have negatively affected her immune system. In addition to living in a house sprayed with chlordane, an insecticide, Rosie worked wheat harvest for 17 years and was exposed to malathion, a pesticide to keep bugs away. ”They (doctors) said too, probably the stress of having two children, all of that just worked together to finally break her immune system down,” Jim Thomas said.
The family dog, Little Star, sits in the Club Car as Rosie Thomas pets her on the cheek. When the farm used to have chickens, Little Star would help herd them.
Rosie Thomas and her husband Jim Thomas watch Little Star run after an animal on their farm in Marshall, Missouri. Rosie and Jim have been married since 1977 and have farmed together since then. Rosie began showing symptoms in 1979, shortly after the birth of their son.
Jim Thomas holds the organic fertilizer used on their farm. “A lot of times people don't think organic farmers use fertilizer, but this is our nitrogen source. It's made out of blood meal and feather meal, and it's granulated.” Thomas said.
Jim Thomas sprays growing vegetables with water in his farm’s greenhouse. Despite being a vegetable farmer because of his wife’s condition, Thomas loved corn harvesting and row crop farming. “Of course I tell people I'm a row crop farmer at heart,” Thomas said. “When I couldn't do that, the Lord was good to me. He allowed me to keep farming and grow things, and it's been rewarding.”
Rosie Thomas watches as Jim Thomas waters vegetables in the greenhouse. “Well, Jimmy's had to change. Jimmy would love to farm big machinery and stuff.” Rosie Thomas said. “And he quit because of me. And that's hard. That's hard on anybody that you love that wants to do something and they can't do it because of you, but Jimmy's been really good at that.”
Rosie Thomas watches Little Star play in the farm greenhouse in Marshall, Missouri. “I feel better when I'm out with the plants, and I don't know if it’s because of the oxygen that the plants put off, you know?” Thomas said. “But I can really not feel real good at all and then go out and pick and stuff. I just, I feel better, you know. I love my plants.”
Red Russian kale grows in a hoop house on Share Life Farms on March 18. At the farmers market that weekend, Jim and Rosie Thomas sold kale, arugula, potatoes, and spinach.
Rosie Thomas holds a tray of tomato seeds in the farm greenhouse. Rosie grows different types of tomatoes on her own to sell in the summer.A rusted dolly carries stacks of wired fence on Sharelife Farms in Marshall, Missouri.