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Farmer Marty Thomas and the Power of Perseverance
- Bob Benenson
- 1 hour ago
- 6 min read
Past Cancer Win Helped Egg Farmer/Entrepreneur Overcome Existential Challenges
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Farming is notoriously unpredictable. But Marty and MariKate Thomas at Kakadoodle Farm in Matteson, Illinois endured existential business challenges — which could have been called "a series of unfortunate events" if that title wasn’t already taken by a famous kid-lit series.
What the couple faced during the period from late 2024 to early 2025 might have forced many seasoned operators to throw in the towel.
First, an avian influenza epidemic swept through their farm in Chicago's south suburbs, causing Marty and MariKate to lose their entire initial flock. As they labored to establish a strict biosecurity protocol during a mandatory 120-day quarantine enforced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a second blow landed: a crucial federal grant aimed at building their local farm ecosystem through an e-commerce retail site was abruptly terminated in the opening days of the current Trump administration.
Yet, talking to Marty Thomas, you don't hear the defeatism of a broken entrepreneur. You hear the deep, grounded resolve of a stage-4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor. For Marty, navigating a volatile balance sheet or an unpredictable ecosystem isn’t just business; it is a profound exercise in faith.
"Farming takes a lot of faith. Building a business takes a lot of faith," Marty reflects. "There are so many variables, from cancer to what got us here, that have been entirely out of my control. It’s been a real growth process for me to let go of that control and realize I am here for a reason."
Tech-Minded Consumer to Accidental Farmer
The road to the Thomas family’s 80-acre farm in Matteson began unexpectedly in Frankfort, Illinois, located about 15 miles to the west. Raising four children born within a four-and-a-half-year span, Marty admits he initially rolled his eyes when MariKate insisted on buying organic groceries.
The turning point was remarkably simple: eggs.
"My kids loved eggs. We were going through a dozen a day," Marty recalls. "I was buying the cheapest ones I could find — $1.20 a dozen at the time. One day I looked at them and thought, Why is this food so cheap? It didn't feel right feeding that to my kids."
His search for better options led him to a local farmer who happened to be a former venture capitalist from the tech world. The two struck up a kinship over software and systemic problems. The farmer planted a critical seed in Marty's mind: The demand for clean local food exists, and the farmers are producing it, but they lack the tools to seamlessly reach the modern consumer.
Shortly after, Marty was diagnosed with a strain of what was initially described as incurable non-Hodgkin's lymphoma — a condition later legally associated with glyphosate exposure. Against the odds, following intensive chemotherapy, a routine PET scan revealed a clean bill of health. His oncologist called it a miracle or a misdiagnosis; Marty viewed it as living on borrowed time.
Driven by a desire to show their children that it is better to try and fail than to never try at all, the couple bought a 150-year-old farmhouse on five acres in Frankfort. But their troubles, it seems, tend to be on a cosmic scale: They launched Kakadoodle in March 2020 — the exact week the COVID-19 pandemic ground the world to a halt.
Targeting the "Modern Consumer"
From day one, Kakadoodle wasn't a typical hobby farm. Marty used his tech background to engineer a unique digital marketplace. They were convinced they could reach an entirely new demographic: people who don't traditionally shop at farmers markets or understand farms that sell Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscriptions.
They instituted a strict rule: You couldn't buy eggs at the farm. You had to go online, enter a credit card and subscribe to an a la carte doorstep delivery service.
"Our consumers want what is best for their family and they are willing to pay for it, but they demand convenience and professionalism," Marty says. "They want the neat, clean branding. Frankly, our consumer would trust Chick-fil-A’s quality standards over a local farmer butchering chickens in a backyard. We bring them in by making the experience convenient and cool, and then we educate them on regenerative, chemical-free practices."
This friction-free approach worked. Kakadoodle rapidly outgrew its initial five acres and partnered with The Conservation Fund to transition onto the 80-acre property in Matteson. Today, the platform serves roughly 600 families, aggregating and delivering products from 30 sustainable, chemical-free farmers and producers across the Chicago region.
Surviving a $200,000 Crisis
The systemic resilience of the Thomas’s business model was put to the ultimate test during the avian flu crisis. While the USDA initially threatened to halt their entire distribution platform, Marty negotiated an emergency biosecurity protocol that allowed Kakadoodle to keep moving other farmers' goods.
Though local media attention triggered a temporary 40 percent spike in sales, the true financial damage of the bird flu was hidden in the margins. To keep egg subscriptions alive while their own flock was quarantined, Kakadoodle was forced to buy eggs from partner producers at full retail price, generating zero profit for eight months. Simultaneously, surging wholesale beef prices inverted their margins on ground beef, causing them to lose money on their second best-selling item.
By the end of the fiscal year, the books showed a brutal $200,000 loss.
"We are highly leveraged," Marty admits candidly. "If everything remains status quo, we will be fine. If we take another major hit, our last lever is to put our house on the line — which we are prepared to do. We won't let this fail."
Pivoting to High-Margin Innovation: Egg Bites and Pet Treats
To insulate the business from the volatility of raw agricultural commodities, Marty is leaning heavily into value-added products.
When fluctuating flock yields left them with an oversupply of eggs, they began processing them into frozen, artisanal "egg bites." The product became an instant revenue generator at seasonal markets, shifting those appearances from marketing expenses to profitable ventures.
Kakadoodle is now prepping to launch these highly transparent, farm-traced egg bites onto local grocery shelves and into regional coffee shops.
They applied the same logic to farm waste, buying up unsold beef liver from partner farms, dehydrating it, and selling it as high-end pet treats.
"With raw regenerative commodities like eggs or beef, the production costs for small farms are too high to survive traditional grocery distribution chains," Marty explains. "An independent egg producer would need 20,000 to 30,000 confined birds to support a family through standard retail. But by shifting to value-added products like egg bites, there's enough margin for the grocer, the distributor, the marketplace, and the farmer to all get their fair share."
A Blueprint for the Future
Kakadoodle’s immediate goal is to hit 1,000 active delivery families in the Chicago suburbs — a magic number that Marty calculates will make the regional system entirely self-sustaining without relying on volatile government funding.
But his ultimate vision scales far beyond Illinois. Marty is already in early discussions with a collaborative of regenerative farmers outside of Denver, looking to clone the Kakadoodle system. By leveraging their proprietary logistics software, a customized SMS text-communication portal, and integrated AI-assisted customer service, Marty believes they can build a scalable blueprint for hyperlocal food networks across the country.
"Small farms are trapped in a system where they either have to stay a tiny hobby farm or scale into industrial confinement to survive," Marty says. "I want Kakadoodle to be that sustainable middle ground. We handle the software, the marketing, and the technology to unlock an entirely new consumer base, so the farmers can focus on what they do best: farming."
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