Acres Continued from Page 1
farming rather than rely on hand tools. “That will save us a lot of time and labor, and we’ll be able to hire people for more of a short-term thing,” Walker said. Fresno County farmer Todd Hirasuna, who grows organic and conventional pro- cessing tomatoes for Morning Star, said he thinks demand for organic products is closely tied to the economy. While he understands the merits of organic farm- ing, he said he has not seen “consis- tent-enough demand to grow it exponen- tially in a short amount of time and be able to sustain that growth.” “You can create whatever mandate or law that you want, but there’s got to be suf- ficient outlets at a premium that justifies the production,” Hirasuna said. Transitioning to organic is “not an over- night success story,” he said, as it takes time, “and you’ve got to change the way you do things.” With processing tomatoes, there are some insect-borne diseases that are very tough to fight organically. On the west side of Fresno County, for example, perennial vine weed has been hard to con- trol even conventionally, he said, and there are few herbicides that work well on it. For Kings County farmer Ted Sheely, Fusarium wilt race 4, a fungal disease, is the main reason he’s not growing organic cotton anymore. He tried for five years and had buyers willing to up the premium for organic cotton. But he was losing 30% to 50% of his crop to the soil-borne pathogen, and even with the higher price, “I couldn’t make enough yield to pay the bills,” he said. There are resistant varieties, Sheely not- ed, but they are genetically modified, and the national organic rules do not allow the use of GMO varieties. With organic cotton acreage so small, he said, few companies are willing to invest time and money to breed resistant varieties through conven- tional methods. Unless the organic rules change to allow GMOs and gene-edited plants, Sheely said certain plant diseases make organic production untenable. Ching Lee is editor of Ag Alert. She can be reached at clee@cfbf.com.
farming less attractive. The three-year transition and the extra cost and paper- work to become certified organic has long been a barrier for some small farms. In addition, some farmers have increasingly turned to other “green” labels such as re- generative and sustainable to market their products, and land managed under these alternative programs doesn’t count toward the state targets. To increase organic acreage, Yolo County farmer Jim Durst said the state should try to improve the farmer’s bottom line. While a farmer’s belief in organic farming practices can help move the needle, he said, “what drives it more is profit margin.” With the cost of doing business in California con- tinuing to rise and inflation chipping away at farm earnings, Durst said the higher pric- es farmers earn for using organic practices have not been as lucrative in recent years. “If growers feel like they can get a fair price for the extra expense, they’ll do it, regardless of their conviction” in organic farming, Durst added. “Their conviction is: I need to make money at it.” Merced County farmer Scott Magneson, who no longer farms organically, can re- late. He transitioned his dairy because the higher price for organic milk allowed his operation to stay smaller, around 500 cows. But to meet the national organic standards, which require cows to get 30% of their dry matter intake from grazing, he had to con- vert most of his ground to pasture, includ- ing land used to grow feed. That meant having to buy more feed. When organic milk prices were strong, Magneson said the extra cost penciled out. But as the market tumbled, running an or- ganic dairy got “more and more expensive.” “I’m really disenfranchised with the whole organic thing,” he said. “I’m still trying to dig out of the hole we got into.” After selling his cows, Magneson also dropped the organic certification on his
Yolo County farmer Eric Walker of Farmboy Organics sprays water on his vegetables at the Davis Farmers Market in downtown Davis.
ground, as there were limited market out- lets for organic feed in his area after other organic dairies also closed their doors. The price for organic feed has been so low the past few years that “it hasn’t been worth- while” growing it, he said. Though his Sonoma County dairy has been organic for years, Domenic Carinalli said he has no plans to transition his vineyard to organic. Maintaining organic pasture for his cows is one thing, he said, but “it would be pretty hard” to grow wine- grapes organically. With the surge in organic milk prices in recent months, Carinalli said he has some room on his pasture to milk a few more cows, but he can’t increase organic acreage. “I think all the land here that is viable for organic has been done,” he said. “They’re already certified organic, even the guys that raised hay.” Ryan Galt, University of California, Davis, professor and director of the Agricultural Sustainability Institute, is leading a four- year research project that explores strate- gies for expanding organic practices state- wide. He acknowledged the economics of organic “haven’t been playing out in (farm- ers’) favor,” especially for certain crops that
have seen lingering low prices. “If the state really does want to expand organic acreage, we’re going to have to ex- pand organic markets,” Galt said. The state can help by broadening pro- curement strategies, he said. In addition to boosting farm-to-school purchases, it could buy from farms for other state-run institutions. Think organic produce for hospitals and prisons. To address cost barriers, Galt said other countries have allowed producer cooper- atives to become certified. The cooperative would then enforce organic compliance among its members. Having signed a new lease this spring on 40 acres, Solano County farmer Eric Walker said he and his brother will be expanding their organic fruit and vegetable produc- tion. They currently farm about 12 acres and “were just bursting at the seams” as local demand for their produce grew. He said labor has been the “main con- cern” for increasing their acreage, consid- ering the labor-intensive crops they grow. Walker said he thinks availability and cost of labor remain the key reason organic farm- land has shrunk. Now that they have more land, he said they can do more tractor-based
www.californiabountiful.com
PARTNER AFFILIATES
Monterey/Salinas
My 11 KOTR
Santa Barbara KSBY/6 Fun Roads TV: funroads.tv/schedule RFD-TV: 8 a.m. Sunday PT Dish Channel 231 • DirecTV Channel 345HD STREAMING NOW
SCAN FOR ALL EPISODES
Watch online or check your local TV listings for times.
Now trending
@cabountiful
12 Ag Alert June 18, 2025
Powered by FlippingBook