How do you produce the highest possible dollar-value per acre per year?" This is perhaps today’s most frequently debated question in university agriculture departments across the country. Some say the future of "value-added" farming lies in farmers forming co-ops. Others advocate finding just the right unfilled niche—growing organic purple beans instead of plain green beans, for example.

While the academic debates continue, the value of many U.S. crops is rapidly falling in relation to crops imported from other nations. Meanwhile, a farmer from South Dakota may have the best value-added solution in the business.

Last year Rick Heintzman planted 4,000 acres of golden flaxseed, a crop that many people still haven’t heard of. While most flaxseed is brown, tough-shelled and grown for industrial purposes, Heintzman grows an uncommon, golden-colored food variety with a subtle nutty flavor and some terrific health benefits. He runs his own manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution facilities, and markets and sells a variety of flax-based products rather than selling his crop to grain elevators at $3.50 per bushel. Adding to this textbook case of value-added farming, Heintzman also underwrites pharmacological research on the health benefits of flaxseed for diabetes and heart disease.

Heintzman’s golden flaxseed is direct-marketed under the trademarked "Dakota Flax Gold" label to consumers, medical clinics, hospitals and health food stores. By selling directly to the consumer in 1-pound to 50-pound packages, Heintzman increases the value of his crop to $168 per bushel. Snack packs, bars and capsules raise the value dramatically higher.

Now the holder of patents and trademarks for everything from improved farming methods to new pharmaceutical products, Heintzman speaks at health conventions, hospitals and farming conferences worldwide. And while his current flaxseed products are gaining increasing attention from the medical community and the media, it is a newly developed pharmaceutical product that appears to hold the key to future escalated business success.

New evidence suggests that flaxseed components called lignans may hold answers for such serious diseases as prostate and breast cancers. Early clinical studies at Duke University and the University of Calgary have produced strong, positive results. Having already developed a new pure-lignan product, Heintzman is already prepared to meet future demand.

For more information, log on to www.flaxdoctor.com