UC Organic Farming Research Workgroup
November 1, 2001
MINUTES

Part 1: Opening Session

Sean Swezey, Director of UC SAREP opened with remarks about the current state of organic production and growth rates in California and potential activities for the workgroup to consider. He also commented on currently available and potential funding.

Karen Klonsky: Growth of Organic Farm Production in California 1993-1998
Information is based on registration data maintained in Sacramento.
General trends:
The data only goes up to 1998. In the early days, there was no 3 year transition period. People registered right away. This new data shows a big push in registrations in the beginning, then a drop. Since then a steady climb. Acreage went up to 67,000 acres in 1998. Also the data shows a steady linear growth in sales.

• Percent increases
  There's been a 50% increase over 1992. Sales increased faster than acres. The number of growers does not show as much of an increase as number of acres.
• Commodity groups:
  Dairy not as big an organic commodity in CA (compared to other states), even though CA is a large dairy state. Over half the organic sales are vegetable crops.
  
• Regions:
  Coastal areas are the most important regionally in terms of production; acreage in San Joaquin Valley shows the most growth. Also big acreage growth in Central Coast. Highest sales are dispersed throughout CA. A few number of growers dominate sales (economic concentration). A lot of farmers have very small acres.
  
• Entry/Exit figures:
  There is a lot of turnover and a small steady growth over years. (About 300+ growers in and out each year.) Who are the people coming in and out? They tend to be very small growers.
  
• Certification:
  There are new regulations regarding registered vs. certified: For gross income over $5,000 growers now need to be certified. For under $5,000 gross sales, there are 602 registered, but only 103 certified. Larger growers are certified anyway. Largest rate of certification is among field crops. Vegetable crops next. In terms of acreage, fruit and nuts are high. Certifiers have to be certified now by USDA. Perceived as a bigger burden.

For full text, see Ag Issues Center Web site http://aic.ucdavis.edu

 

PANEL DISCUSSION
Mark VanHorn, UC Davis Student Farm Association, moderator

Ford Denison, Professor, A&RS, UCD
Major issues we need to think about:

• We need to think about multi-decade experiments. He used the example of 40 year trend in turnips in England. 80 years later, the soil was depleted.
  
• Need to think about water issues.
  
• Soil quality studies. Some soil properties are improving with organic treatment. But we don't know yet if this accounts for improved yields.
  
• Studies comparing cover crop rotation with nitrogen fertilizer vs. control (unfertilized).
  
• Conclusions (available from Dennison--see workgroup members listing)
• Transitional is higher than organic or conventional.

Howard Ferris, Professor, Nematology, UCD

SAFS project. Ferris presented information about the soil food web, especially nematodes. Nematodes are present at all levels. Nematodes are indicator guilds (about 15 functional guilds) for the soil food web. Most abundant. They occupy key positions in the web; standard extraction procedures; easy to identify; clear relationships between the structure of nematode community and soil health. Classificatory system shows "quadrants" with different web characteristics; we can plot different growing systems into different quadrants.
More information: http://plpnemweb.ucdavis.edu/nemaplex/nemaplex.htm

Willie Horwath, Asst. Professor, LAWR, UCD
Horwath studies organic matter. We can add organic matter when we want to, but a lot of organic matter isn't necessarily a good thing. Theoretically, organic matter increases soil quality.

• About 20% of soil organic matter is really driving the system. The rest is for structure but not necessarily for fertility.
• In comparison studies, organic additions resulted in higher carbon and nitrogen/ha; covercrops also produced high carbon and N (Organic treatments were compared to low inputs and conventional).
• Management and uptake issues complicate the picture. We need more research on the "Soil Nitrogen Pool". We need to study these interactions with more intensity.

Kate Scow, Associate Professor, LAWR, UCD
What have we learned about soil microbial ecology that is relevant to organic farming?

• There is no one way to measure microbial populations.What do you want to know? (Microorganisms do more than nematodes).
• We need to keep up with the explosion in techniques for determining elements and functionality of microorganisms. E.g., DNA methodology-sequencing, cloning samples to identify microorganisms.
  
• Differences between microbial communities on adjacent sites are small (compared to differences between crops or seasons).
  
• Why does a microbial community look a certain way? Management? Season? Crop? Location? Soil type? Management system? Variability within a field? These are issues to study.

PART 2:
Small Farm Extension:Organic Research Needs and Future Directions

Ben Fouche, Fresno County Farm Advisor

• Research needs of small farmers is a difficult subject because there are so many different kinds of farms and crops. There's a sense that there's not enough support for Hispanic farmers or for organic farmers. UCCE tends to get immediate questions, troubleshooting type. Several farmers don't have extensive education; some don't have English as their first language. Very little knowledge of management skills.
  
• Big need for demonstration work. Farmers aren't paper people. Need to see it on their farm. Many are shy (about regulations, registration, government, etc). Many are not certified, but are very low input, even organic.
  
• Biggest benefit from workgroup--weed control is one of biggest issues growers deal with. (This is short term). Longer term: soil fertility. Need simple accessible information.
  
• Also it's hard to get growers to put aside acreage for future organic production. They need the land.

Mario Moratorio, Yolo County Farm Advisor

• Type of farms and farmers in Yolo: Very few organic growers are full time growers. They subsidize their income with other jobs. Biggest growers are around Winters & Davis, and Capay Valley. They market through Farmers' Market and CSAs.
  
• They tend not to call UCCE office unless they have a crisis. Yet they are very well connected to campus.

Laura Torte, Santa Cruz County Farm Advisor

• Major challenges for small farmers are input costs. Crops are high value; therefore, they require high inputs (& costs).
  
• Another critical area is marketing. New market developments--working with small farmers to expand this area.
• Spends a lot of time puting together a beginning packet for new farmers. Strong need for good, acessible information and locations for further information. Spanish-speaking is also an important issue.

Ramiro Lobo, San Diego County Farm Advisor

• Overview: SD county has lost a lot of farmland to development. About 4500 farmers. 65% are under 5 acres. More intensively farmed area of county is near coast, and farms are smaller (in desert area, they are larger). Price of land is very high. So many new farmers are retirees. Water is expensive $650/acre foot. Tend to grow high specialty items and high value crops.
  
• Organic: SD County has one of the largest registered organic growers per county (400-500 growers, about 11% of total farmers-compared to 3% statewide.)
  
• New organic standards will affect these growers. They will be required to have immediate certification. How do we address that issue? Emphasize it as a marketing tool. This will be a big issue.
  
• Challenges: Price of land; price of water; labor availability because of law enforcement; development/land availability; regulations, tmdls, etc. proximity to domestic properties (exotic pests); infrastructure to move fruit (products)-very difficult for some of the small farmers to move their fruit.
  
• Basic production issues also are not easily accessible to growers. How much water to apply, etc. Need to identify opportunities in marketing, growing etc.
  
• Must focus on the human element of farming, because if we don't whatever research is done will be useless.
  
• Marketing issues are the most important.

PART 3:

Perspectives on Organic Farming Research Needs

Mark Lipson, Policy Coordinator, OFRF
What is Organic Farming Research? How should a research agenda be set?

• OFRF is grower directed charitable foundation that funds nationwide research. It's a national group, focused on organic industry in entire U.S. They have raised their grants to $15,000. UC has gotten grants from OFRF. Despite critiques OFRF has made of UC and DANR, Lipson is gratified to see this interest on an institutional level. Pledges support of OFRF for sharing information and collaboration. OFRF's role is largely to inject the growers into the system. What is their understanding of the systems? Where can UC help them to understand systems better?
  
• Organics are still in the early stages of paradigm building. We still don't really understand why things in the system are working the way they do. We especially don't understand what's going on when they don't go well. It's hard for the scientist to understand what's going on on the "whole system" level. Admittedly, it is difficult to grasp this concept, but whole systems exist. It is still hard to find ways to describe what happens in the whole system state.
  
• What is the relationship between organic as marketing identity and as an approach to farming? Lower case "o" organic refers to essence of approach to ag that is based on natural inputs and biological relationships within the system. Capital "O" organic is regulated, legally codified, marketing identity.
  
• Research activities within the university must be conducted within the perameters of this codified system. The marketplace is driving the development of the organic approach to agriculture.
  
• There will be increased funding for organic research and extension in the coming years.

Questions from members:
What about farm workers? Does it matter to the worker whether they work for a small farmer in Capay Valley vs. a large grower on the central coast? This is an important human element that is not at all considered in the organic regulations. Who can research this? Where does this fit in?
Answer: the health of the worker is a component of the whole system. The health of the whole system must include the health of the workers.

Other research cited: Julie Guthman's study on structural changes in farmworkers.
Beyond the Organic Tomato: study of satisfaction of workers in that system.

Where are the good ideas in agriculture going to come from? Not all from organics but disproportionately high from this sector.

Afternoon Sessions

Concurrent Breakout Session 1:
Organic Tree Crops, Vines, Dairy

Glenn McGourty, Farm Advisor, Mendocino County, spoke about organic vineyards in Mendocino County. The county is about 2/3 covered with forest, and winegrapes are a major crop. Local climate is largely determined by proximity to the ocean, and some appellations determined by elevation relative to the fog line. The move to organic in Mendocino is consistent with the environmentally oriented views that prevail in the county. There are currently 4,000 organic vineyard acres in that county, with another 400 acres certified as Biodynamic. The organic grapes are worth about $18,000,000 per year, and the wine produced from them is worth about $50 million per year. Only 50% of the organic grape crop is destined to become organic wine. A major advantage of organic production is worker safety. Further, it is becoming increasingly clear that organic vineyards are more resistant to damage by phylloxera. Organic production may involve much tillage, and thus be too petrochemical intensive to be sustainable as is presently practiced.

Janine Hasey, Farm Advisor, Sutter/Yuba counties, reported on her study comparing a transitional organic to a conventional kiwifruit orchard. Kiwifruit lends itself well to organic production because:

1) there are few insect pests and some of the insecticides used against them are organically acceptable.
2) The kiwifruit trees shade the ground, suppressing most weeds.
3) The nutrient removal by the crop is minimal.

The trial involved standardization of fertilizer applications so that equal amounts of N and K were applied to both systems. Composted chicken manure was the principal fertilizer for the organic orchard. Volck oil was used against Latania scale in both systems. To control omnivorous leafroller, cryolite was used in the organic system vs. Imidan in the conventional. For weed control, mowing and some hand-hoeing were used in the organic vs. paraquat and glyphosate herbicides in the conventional orchard.

The lack of replication precludes formal inferential statistical comparison, but the descriptive statistics suggest higher ammoniacal nitrogen in the organically managed soil, and higher nitrate nitrogen in the conventional. Similar observations have been made in replicated comparisons of organic vs. conventional agriculture. Organically grown kiwifruit held up well in storage.

The results of this study led the grower cooperator to convert the entire kiwi operation to organic.

Janet Caprile, Farm Advisor, Contra Costa County, presented on organic pome fruit production, emphasizing apple, and management of fertility, pests, and plant growth regulators. Organic fertility management is contingent on cover cropping with legumes to provide N, use of composts, animal by-products (e.g. fish emulsion), mined minerals, and synthetic micronutrients. Calcium foliar sprays prevent bitter pit disease.

The orchard floor management system involves consideration of layout, irrigation, vegetational management, and fertility management. Organic weed control involves cover cropping, cultivation and mowing, mulching, and flaming. Weed control is more important in young than in older orchards. Cross mowing is best for organic orchard floor management, but may not be an option due to layout or irrigation system. For example, furrow irrigation is incompatible with cross mowing.

Principle arthropod pests are codling moth, rosy apple aphid, leaf rollers, psylla, leafminer, and scale. Codling moth is still a major problem. Pheromonal confusant technology has not worked well in apples. The use of Surround® kaolinitic clay has shown some promise at reducing codling moth damage. Nick Mills of UC Berkeley has worked with two parasitic wasps that attack codling moth: Trichogramma sp. and the more promising Mastrus sp. Codling moth undergoes 3.5 generations in Contra Costa County. Bagging fruit is very expensive, but does work. Thinning damaged fruit following the first generation of codling moth can reduce problems.

L.J. "Bees" Butler, Specialist, Agricultural and Resource Economics, UCD, discussed organic dairy production, noting that of 10 total producers, 5 are in it for ethical reasons, and 5 for purely commercial considerations. The number of organic dairy farms has increased by 12%, and the amount of milk by 20%. Increased demand for organic milk has driven the market. The dairy industry drove consumers to organic by refusing to label milk as to BST.

Due to the greater use of pasture land, and less use of concentrated feed by organic dairies, their average feed cost per cow was similar to that of conventional dairies. Other costs of production, including labor, marketing, breed replacement, were higher for organic dairies. The result is that in general, the net income of organic dairies is generally smaller than conventional dairies. So there is not a huge economic advantage for organic dairies.

Concurrent Breakout Session 2:
Salinas Valley Organic Strawberries and Vegetables

Carolee Bull, Research Scientist, USDA-ARS

• A new document is coming out soon on strawberry organic research work sponsored by ARS people.
• So little money going into agriculture research (only about 3-4%). Of that budget, only a fraction goes to organic research. Carolee Bull was hired by USDA to find ways to find alternatives to methyl bromide and enhance organic production. However, 1) She didn't want to do comparisons; 2) She wanted to be sure that whatever research she did was based on what the growers wanted.
• Breeders are reluctant to breed cultivars for organic. Growers wanted to evaluate the cultivars available to them and determine their suitability for organic growing.
• Highest priority issues are breeding and cultivar development (bare root) and evaluation of cultivars.
• Current conventional cultivars are very vigorous and high yielding. Currently no organic transplants are available. Growers are using conventional transplants. Transplants have to be fungicide free to be brought into the fields, but are grown in fumigated soil.
• There are some cultivars that perform the same fumigated and non-fumigated. But there are some where fumigated perform better, and some where non-fumigated perform better.
• They are also testing microbial innoculants. They are testing 10 cultivars, side-by-side plots in three counties. Aromas, Pacific and Seascape are the three top performing cultivars. Seascape is preferred because of shipability.

Where to go from here?

• Chilling recommendations the same for organic and conventional?
• Availability of organically grown transplants
• Selection of cultivars in an organic system
• Organic production manual

Steve Fennimore, Specialist, UCD Dept of Vegetable Crops
Strawberry Weed Control without synthetic fumigants: Temperature and light are two main factors in producing weeds. Weeds compete with yields in strawberries. They interfere with harvesting and harbor pests.

Handweeding is important in strawberries, but is very expensive.

• They have used organic tarps (plastic mulch).. They test with different colors. The quality (color, opacity) of light can determine to what extent weeds germinate. It has a big effect on whether weeds will grow. Different results in terms of yield and vigor also.
• Applied ozone @ 400 pp/acre resulted in significant weed control. Works under some conditions. Must continue to evaluate.
• Soil solarization works well in warmer parts of CA, but less well along coast.
• Boosted temperatures with double layers of plastic. This significantly raised the temperature. Tests showed lower weed germination with double plastic.
• Another is broccoli residue. Broccoli in conjunction with tarps works best.

Louise Jackson, Associate Professor, UCD Dept of Vegetable Crops
She is working in Salinas with transition from conventional systems to organic. Works with growers, mainly one very large, very progressive grower who is going organic.

1. On farm experiment on cover crops, compost and tillage practices (Salinas)

• Four plots with different treatments.
  
• Initially very good results, but after 6-8 weeks, soil microbial activity is the same as it was
• Changed approach to applications simultaneously. Minimum tillage didn't do much-not recommended over a long period. But organic matter is affecting yields.
  

2. Transition to organic

• Very few pest problems with this transition. But this is a very careful and astute grower.
• It may be more a management issue than an input issue.

Eric Brennan, Research Horticulture Specialist, USDA-ARS, Salinas
This is a new USDA program. He is the first USDA scientist in the county focused exclusively on organic production. Research needs of organic farmer have largely been ignored. This program was created to address the needs of organic vegetable farmers. There's been about a 60% increase in organic sales since 1995. This is part of the USDA Integrated Agriculture Research Programs.

Organic Workgroup Afternoon Plenary Session

Keynote Speaker: Kathleen Delate
Dept. of Agronomy and Horticulture, Iowa State University

The program and her position:
Iowa State program got started 1996 with a citizens group that advocated for a position split between agronomy and horticulture. Extension and research. Wanted long term research in organic. Focus was on comparisons between conventional and organic, because the interest was in economic returns.

The position is grant driven (she has raised $982K far from SARE, IFAFS Organic Ag Consortium, ISU, OFRF, Gerber, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
As in CA, farmers want demonstrations. Research needs are for marketing and alternative practices.

She presented the range of her research projects--about 12 different projects, ranging from disease control, compost, food quality comparisons, mulches etc. She works with representatives from 10 departments at ISU. Very good collaboration among departments.

Goals:
To compare organic and conventional practices and results.
To involve the local farming community in the studies and process.

Some results:

• After 3 years, corn/soybeans slightly outyielded conventional. More carbon in soil. Economic returns are OK.
  
• They use hog manure for compost. Put a lot of energy into outreach and extension.
  
• Marketing is a big emphasis.
  
• Iowa Organic Conference in November 29, 2001
  
• They've done heirloom tomato trials. Paid for by Gerber.
• Medicinal herbs are becoming big. Looking at organics for that.
  
• Mulches for medicinal weed control. Flax is best.
  
• Broccoli increased yields with compost.
  
• No till system "strip till" with vetch. Not very good yields.
  
• Apple work for codling moth.

Barriers to conversion to organic
1. Limited research/extension services
2. Information gathering

Ray Green, Program Manager, CDFA-California Organic Program
Green gave handouts on the National Organic Program and spoke about regulations and policy.
There are more certifiers coming to California. Right now, there are about 14. There are some from national organizations, some from overseas. This reduces the cost of certification. Now it costs about $350 to get fully certified.

Certification changes organics from a philosophically driven movement to a regulated institution. Now there is a uniform national standard. This might help with research design in that researchers will have a standardized, common basis for comparisons, interpretations.

Some growers are reluctant to convert because of the unknown. Ray Green considers himself a broker of information. The web site will help tremendously so people can find the information they need.

The list of certifiers will be out October 1, 2002. After that, every organic grower must be certified. Two counties are certifying: Monterey and Marin. It's very difficult for a county to certify-lots of bureaucratic hoops. Very costly. Also it needs to be on the legal books in a county. It's possible for growers in a close geographical group to band together to cut costs on the inspection process.

What does Ray need from workgroup? Needs data so he can pass than on.

Mark Lipson pointed out that the federal government is still working out the precise language and statutory requirements. Some of the regulations were drafted in 1990. For example, the $5,000 level is not appropriate.

Organic Workgroup: Business meeting section

Chair, Sean Swezey asked for consensus on whether we want an additional year of life for this workgroup. (YES)
Originally he asked for funding for a peer reviewed conference, but we were not awarded those funds. Now, we have located a funder (Heller Foundation). Is there interest in attending a scientific conference of organic research in California? Is there a will to do this? Would it be useful?

Organic Conference (Group discussion)
1. Need stakeholder driven issues.
2. Would be useful. We are missing good solid information.
3. How would a scientific conference be different from this workgroup?

• Creates much larger audience, formed by the workgroup. Subset of workgroup plans it.
• Academics would present their research.
• Possibly we could bring in people from other states. It would be more expanded in scope.
  
• We would want to cover activities in past 10 years in CA. But also expanded.

4. Return to conference meeting suggestion: Jamie Liebman (US-EPA):

• There are many regular scientific meetings. Instead of a separate Organic Conference, Organic Workgroup could do a special session at one of those venues. We could also do something at the Ecofarm Conference at Asilomar. (Chair: that would be in January 2003.)
  
• Possibly team up with another conference group? The funder seemed to be most interested in academic, peer reviewed presentations. Another option: Do a peer reviewed publication without a conference.

Resources
The funder is also interested in getting resources out to counties for improving organic programs. This is another point for discussion.
Also interested in workgroup's helping to write production manuals in the areas of expertise. Organize and produce a production manual and short courses.

Funding work
Do we need to get involved in an explicit call (funding pool) for research on organic farming?
Should workgroup members jointly apply for research funding of importance to California?
Suggestion: we need a fund that will allow researchers to hire a student assistant for two years running (@ about $15K per year). Currently OFRF offers for one year--can we get enough money to ensure research for two years?

Ideas on the table:
Conference
Proceedings without a conference
Manual
Short courses
Research call

Mark Lipson: Most other scientific societies are functioning on a national basis. We want to do something specifically for California. The way this group is configured is CA specific. Be sure to
involve the commodity groups. Perhaps also include the commodity groups in research calls (partner with them). We could do manuals in other languages. This would be a task for a manual sub-committee.

The UC group that we submit our proposals to is called The Program Council.

Q: Did they tune into the potential for this kind of conference? Yes, but they want to see what the plenary session produces first.

Steering Committee:
Karen Klonsky
Milt McGiffen
Danny Gonzales
Sean Swezey
Mark Lipson
David Lighthall
Mario Moratorio
Tom Lanini
Richard Molinar
Deborah Giraud
Ramiro Lobo
Robert Farmer

Listserv
Consensus is yes for listserv.

Web site
Dave Chaney shows the features of the web site. Member directory and research bibliography. Dave gets some names of people for a subcommittee to work on web site.
Carolee Bull, Dave Chaney, Sean Swezey
One stop shop page for California organic research/activities.

MEETING EVALUATION SUMMARY

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