by Jenny Broome, BIFS coordinator and Bill Liebhardt, director, UC SAREP.

There are many ways to produce food, and a corresponding number of philosophies behind these farming methods. Over the last 10 to 15 years, producers and consumers have had a continuing dialogue regarding the use of agricultural chemicals, including fertilizers and pesticides. Consumers as well as producers have expressed human health and environmental concerns about pesticides. These concerns have been translated into both legislation, such as the recent passage of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), and the marketplace where organic sales have grown annually by 20 percent for the past seven years. The question for producers appears to be, How should I change my farm operation in response to this trend? This is an important question for those who wish to maintain the economic viability of their farms for more than the short term.

Increasingly, the answer for farmers and ranchers is to work with each other and with interested regulatory, nonprofit and educational agencies. More and more farmers are organizing themselves into groups to develop and promote production systems that reduce reliance on, or the risk associated with, the use of agricultural chemicals. The shift is to the increased use of biologically based farming techniques and the integration of these practices with natural resource and wildlife conservation (see Table 1 and Table 2 for a list of some current projects in California). The advantages of these associations are that the participants get technical assistance, peer support, and a network of people to interact with as they make changes in their growing practices. In addition, the growers can share resources to support locally relevant research and market development. These associations help growers anticipate and comply with federal and state regulatory changes.

An early organization to support new farming systems in California was the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). Since 1973, CCOF has provided technical support, materials evaluation, marketing and regulation for a growing community of organic farmers. Although there are not demonstration projects that involve only organic farmers, organic farmers play key roles in several of these projects. The fact that consumers can buy food that is certified organic provides a critical link between farmers and consumers interested in supporting this kind of farming.

Since 1993, the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) has helped organize almond and walnut growers in several counties. The Biologically Integrated Orchards Systems (BIOS) programs include farmers, PCAs, extension advisors, nonprofit staff, and university researchers who meet as equals on their management teams. Activities include field days, grower meetings, farm visits and other functions where farmers can get information and support to make changes in their farming systems. Other groups with this focus include the projects funded by the Biologically Integrated Farming Systems (BIFS) program administered by SAREP. BIFS has supported two, large three-year demonstration projects to date (Table 1). Approximately 650 growers in the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission are moving toward more biologically based farming practices and are focused on improving both farming and marketing techniques. The other BIFS project is located on the West Side of Fresno County where growers are attempting to grow vegetables and cotton using soil-building and alternative pest management practices that will help them survive regulatory and environmental challenges coming in the next decade. There are similar projects with other funding sources in other grape-growing areas in the state, and in other commodities such as prunes, peaches, strawberries, cotton, tomatoes, rice and potatoes (Table 2).

The pace and priorities of all these projects are determined by individual farmer members; the important point is that each group has begun the process of changing its farming system. The projects noted here, especially early in their development, received important support from various federal, state and private agencies and foundations. In 1993, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (US-EPA) Agricultural Initiative of Region IX was the first program to support BIOS and other similar pollution prevention projects in California. In 1994, California legislation was passed (AB3383) to provide funds from the state's Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) to support BIFS as an expansion of the BIOS model to other farming systems; additional funds for BIFS were provided by US-EPA. In 1996, DPR began its own grants program to support community-based demonstration projects to help agricultural and non-agricultural groups adopt pest management systems that reduce the human health and environmental risks associated with conventional pesticide use. Various foundations have also provided important support. The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Kellogg Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trust have supported BIOS, and Pew more recently has supported Sun-Maid Growers' Best Management Practices/Integrated Pest Management (BMP/IPM) Program.

Many of these partnership projects are supported by the communities themselves, either through organized assessment as with the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission, or through grower cooperatives such as Sun-Maid Growers. As individual projects mature, there may be a handoff to a state or local agency such as a Resource Conservation District. Finally, the marketplace may link consumers to growers via associations such as CCOF or other recent "eco-labeling" initiatives.

However advanced a biologically integrated farming system may be, there are always unmet research needs. There are a growing number of researchers getting involved in "piggyback" research projects linked to these partnerships. The impact of this kind of collaborative and participatory research can be substantial if growers help set the research agenda and then support it. If the work is carried out on their farms, they are ready and willing to implement the practices and help extend them throughout their community.

More of these kinds of partnerships are forming in California, but the challenges are substantial. The BIFS program provides funding to help industries surmount the challenges with biologically integrated farming systems aimed at reducing reliance on and risks associated with agricultural chemicals. With the passage of FQPA, certain pesticides may no longer be registered. In the next three years US-EPA will be reviewing tolerances for all organophosphates, carbamates and the EPA category B2 carcinogens. Some registrants will decide the revenues to be gained are not worth the expense of generating the new data required. Management of some pests is becoming increasing difficult due to the development of resistance to specific pesticides. Groundwater contamination from nitrates is extensive and has most recently been associated with dairy operations in the Central Valley; new regulations are sure to follow. There are increased expectations from consumers that farming can and should integrate resource conservation practices and provide a healthy and creative work environment. The projects listed are addressing these challenges in concrete ways.

Interested growers can become involved with a project in their area or organize a new one. Agricultural consultants and suppliers can expand their services and supplies to support these new systems. Grower associations can help connect members with each other and with state and federal agencies interested in supporting these kinds of projects. Processors and handlers can support these projects through the standards they set. Regulatory agencies can enter into the partnerships and work with these kinds of voluntary programs. University researchers can evaluate the side-by-side demonstration plots of a conventional and a biologically integrated farming system so as to elucidate mechanisms and increase understanding of the system. In addition, researchers can help expand the impact of the projects through investigating missing components of the systems. And, finally, consumers can use the marketplace to support such projects. [Note: The UC SAREP BIFS program is expecting to support more projects in the coming years. For more information on the program please contact new SAREP staff member Jenny Broome at (916) 754-8547.]