Public, private institutions expand organic research
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ByBob Johnson California has seen a recent surge in or- ganic research, much of it supported by
havealready increasedon-campusorgan- ic farming research. “The organic farm is used to host and support research done by graduate and undergraduate students,” said Ashraf Tubeileh, thesustainablecroppingsystems directorat the9-acreCalPolyorganic farm. Tubeileh has collaboratedwithCal Poly studentstoproducepeer-reviewedresearch thelast twoyearsonusingcompostedplant soilamendmentstoreduceVerticilliumand change soil chemistry for bell peppers, and onusing olivemill byproducts as part of an organicweed-management program. “We also have research ongoing that looks into nitrogen fixation in non-le- gumes, andtheuseofbiological stimulants to improveplant nutritionanddisease tol- erance,” Tubeileh said. Therecent surge inorganicresearchand education comes in part because people in theproducebusiness expect continued expansion of the organic sector. “When I look at the growthof organic at mainstreamretailers likeWalmart, Kroger and Albertson’s, the demand is there,” Huckabysaid. “They tellus theyneedmore organic produce.” The UC system recently created an Organic Agriculture Institute, launched after a $500,000 donation from Clif Bar, which produces plant-based energy bars featuring nuts, grains and dried fruits. “Wethinkof theOrganicInstituteasmore of a clearinghouse of information, rather than have our own specific researchers,” saidHoustonWilson, the UCCooperative Extension farmadvisor named as the first institutedirector. “Wewillbringtogetherre- sourceswithinUCandother shareholders. Wewant todo anassessment of the specif- ic research needs for each of our four first crops: treenuts, tree fruits, raisins andrice.” He saidhe expects theplanningdiscus- sion tobecomplete in time topresent a list of specific researchprojects for eachof the four crop groups in the fall of 2022. “The organic market has grown expo- nentially, and as that market expands, growers are getting more demands for organic crops from their processors,” Wilsonsaid inexplaining theexpansionof researchefforts. “Recently, I’vebeenhear- ing fromgrowerswhoarenot organicwho are being asked to provide large acreages of organic commodities.” Rodale turned its attention to vegeta- bles after a 40-year farming systems trial, which it said showed that over the long term, effectively managed organic soil can produce grain yields comparable to conventional systems. “Our vegetable systems trial was started in 2015 and is designed to run for at least 20 years,” Rodale Institute CEO Jeff Moyer said.“Itcomparesorganicandconventional managementsystemsforcropslikepotatoes, lettuce, sweet cornandbeans. Themain fo- cus of this trial is to track thedegradationof soilanditsimpactonhumanhealthbycom- paring the nutrient density of organic and conventional producegrownonthesite.”
theagricultural divisions of the University of California and CaliforniaState University sys- tems, aswell as
by private firms and nonprofits. For example, in plots at a new Ventura County research facility, Rodale Institute researchers are looking at ways to make buried drip irrigation a viable alternative for organic vegetable crops. Subsurfacedrip irrigationcould reduce water use in organic production, and might also help manage weeds without the use of conventional herbicides, said Arianna Pozzolo, research director at Rodale’s CaliforniaOrganic Center. “I’d like to try underground irrigation of vegetable crop rotations or of permanent nutcrops,”Pozzolosaid.“Weneedtoreduce theuseofwater.Ongrapes,peoplehavetried watering one side of the plant or the other; thismight beuseful for vegetables too.” In conventional drip systems, fertilizer can feed the crop through the drip lines; the challengewithdrip inorganic systems is that the entire root zonemust bewet for the crop to take upnutrients fromthe soil. “It’s an evolving process,” said Rodale’s Cal ifornia organic crop consultant Nathanael Gonzales-Siemens. “With bur- ied drip, you can use a fertigationmethod or you canuse a combinationof compost, cover crops and crop rotation.” Oneapproachunder studyat theRodale Center is toburymore thantheusualnum- ber of drip lines in beds planted in both a vegetable cash crop and a legume cover crop that fixes nitrogen and puts it in the soil while it also competes withweeds. “We’ve got four drip lines for two rows of broccoli and three rows of cover crop,” Gonzales-Siemens said. At Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the cam- pus is starting a new Center for Organic Production and Research, made possible by a $5 million donation by Bakersfield- based Grimmway Farms, the largest or- ganic vegetable grower in the country. “I am really excited about students learning from actual, hands-on organic farming and research,” Grimmway Farms president Jeff Huckaby said. Be f o re be comi ng p re s i den t o f Grimmway Farms, Huckaby said he ex- perienced the learning curve firsthand as thecompany’sorganic farmmanager, then as general manager at Cal Organic after Grimmway acquired that operation. “I grew up on a farm and I understood conventional farming, but I had to learn about soil health and how you build soil, howtousebeneficial insects—and the fer- tilizerprogramsaresodifferent,”hesaid. “I probably spent five-plus years of trying to treat it like conventional.” The new center in San Luis Obispo comes as Cal Poly faculty and students
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