26 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY december 12-18, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com 3.5-hour rundown of the paper trail, meticulously assessing all aspects of the supply chain to ensure compliance with organic standards—prohibiting harmful chemicals and maintaining proper records and labeling methods. As one of roughly 80 USDAaccredited organic certifiers, CCOF plays a role in certifying and enforcing national organic standards. While these standards were initially established in 2002, they were updated significantly in March of this year, expanding certification requirements to encompass every stage of the supply chain. The Strengthening Organic Enforcement rule, which amends the original standards, mandates that everyone from farmers to shippers to packers maintain thorough documentation to trace organic products throughout the supply chain. However, before the inspector even reaches the supply chain review, the Watsonville farmer is flagged for non-compliance after failing to register newly acquired parcels of land. Still, the CCOF inspector proceeds through the inspection process, spending most of their time in the shed, surrounded by boxes and stacks of paper, followed by a walk across the property to inspect everything from the farm’s boundary lines to the labels on the fertilizer canisters. Materials list? Check. Any inputs, like pesticides, and what kind? Check. Labeling mechanisms, delivery tags, crop updates? Check. According to the Agricultural Commissioner’s annual crop report, Monterey County had 95,475 acres dedicated to organic production in 2023, representing a 17-percent increase from the year before and a 186-percent increase from a decade earlier. The top commodities in 2023: strawberries, lettuce, broccoli and wine grapes. While larger farms tend to more easily absorb the costs of transition across their operations, smaller farms, in theory, have more access to transition costs via government grants and reimbursements. Still, it’s tough. “The consumer demand is there. We have not seen it go back by any means, despite how the economy is going with inflation,” Meghan Diaz, senior director of local and regional produce at Sprouts Farmers Market, said during a panel at the Organic Growers Summit in Monterey on Dec. 4. “Stepping out of my role as a retailer, understanding the life of those within the supply chain, everyone is being squeezed in such a way that makes me nervous about the longevity of this industry. It won’t exist without people being able to make some sort of profit.” Local growers may have easier access to local, independent grocers, says Jamie Collins, owner of Serendipity Farms and who used to assist the produce manager at Elroy’s Fine Foods in Monterey. She would compile lists of local farms and what they were growing, then provide those lists to the produce manager for sourcing. “The buyer really has to give a shit,” she says. And at the end of the inspection in Watsonville, the grower is flagged, unable to label some of their produce as USDA organic-certified this year. Roy Fuentes of Fuentes Farms has been farming strawberries in Salinas since 1993. He began by managing strawberry operations for Reiter Affiliated Companies in Watsonville, a grower for Driscoll’s—the world’s largest berry producer—before moving positions to grow organic berries for Driscoll’s five years later. He shares that his contract with the landowner is a positive partnership, which saved him significant time in transitioning to organic farming. Since the land was already certified organic, he avoided the three-year waiting period required to transition from conventional methods. Fuentes notes challenges that both organic and conventional growers face, and says that rising labor costs and minimum wage increases have been difficult to keep up with. Pests, he adds, are especially problematic for strawberries. “My harvesters, they come in year after year now, because they know me and they know that I like to do something about the field and make it good for them,” Fuentes says. In the past, he says, it was difficult to find harvesters to work on organic farms where the yields might be less, meaning fewer full boxes and less pay. Fuentes is constantly trying to figure out how to manage new pests and diseases, and how to make his soil better. He’s a collaborator with the Agricultural Research Station (ARS) in Salinas, which focuses on climate-smart and organic farming systems, emphasizing cover cropping and improved soil management. He’ll cultivate about 15 acres of strawberries at ARS on a four-year cycle, contributing to their research while also selling the harvested crop. Walking through rows of strawberry varieties, he points out that he’s evaluating which varieties are more resistant to certain pests. Some diseases, like verticillium wilt—a fungal infection that invades the soil and causes plants to wilt—can only be managed with synthetic fumigants. It’s one example where organic farming means greater risk. If these diseases get into the soil, which he’ll know when he sees the strawberry plants grow in with dry, brown and curling leaves, typically organic farmers rotate the field, which means losing the entire crop. Just 25 miles away in Soledad, Braga Farms is preparing their fields for cool-season vegetables, namely greens, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, spinach, spring mix and herbs. Braga cultivates over 20,000 acres split between conventional and organic farming, with the majority— about 77 percent—dedicated to organic production. Visually, bystanders wouldn’t be able to distinguish between conventional and organic farms. Even seeing a spray tractor at work wouldn’t make things clear without knowing what is being sprayed. Between the two types of farming styles, there are 30-foot buffer zones. While it doesn’t seem like much, farmers are generally respectful of each other, says Katie Chiapuzio, director of environmental science and resources at Braga. “We’ve had issues in the past where they test our field and it doesn’t pass inspection because there’s residue, a conventional chemical on it, and we have to investigate it,” Chiapuzio says. “We have to find out what they sprayed, when they sprayed it. Was it our negligence? Or was it someone else’s negligence?” Every single piece of farmland has to be managed in relation to other farms in adjacent fields, Chiapuzio adds, relying on skills that most farmers, regardless of their farming style, are familiar with. This means Katie Rodriguez Above: Greg Hill, a co-founder of Tira Nanza Winery in Carmel Valley, stands beside rows of vines after harvest. Below: Hill holds up a Syrah leaf and a Viognier leaf, representing two wine grape varietals, at the end of the season. Katie Rodriguez
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