August 13, 2022

The national NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant Program CA organic reduced disturbance vegetable project has a new research component this year at the Hollister, CA farm of Phil Foster.  Both he and CIG Project partner, Tom Willey, along with John Petrosso, of the Mazzei Company in Fresno, CA have set up an elaborate trial in one of Foster's 2022 bell pepper fields to test the potential of using pressurized air injection into drip irrigation water as a means of adding oxygen to the crop's root zone.  One of the suspected challenges in increasingly reduced soil disturbance production systems is thought to be lack of oxygen and this method may be a means for overcoming this issue.  On August 10th, the three of these study partners, along with Jeff Mitchell, met out in the pepper field to take stock of things and to make observations about crop growth and development in the four experimental treatments that Phil has established - reduced till (strip-tillage) without injected air, reduced till (strip-tillage) with air injection, spader-till without injected air, and spader-till with injected air.  To date, drone images have not shown striking differences in growth.  Phil's harvest is coming up soon and he intends to very carefully weigh each plot's productivity through his several hand harvests.  Stay tuned for more conclusive information coming from this innovative approach to vegetable production.

Shown in photo:  Left to right:  John Petrosso, Phil Foster, and Tom Willey

CASI honored with SWCS 2022 Conservation Innovation Award - August 2, 2022

August 4, 2022

California's Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation (CASI) Center was recognized as the recipient of the 2022 Conservation Innovation Award by the Soil and Water Conservation Society at their Annual Conference held in Denver, CO from July 31 through August 3rd 2022.  Tom Willey, retired organic farmer in Madera, CA and long-time CASI member received the award on behalf of our entire group and also presented a summary of work currently being done by a group of California organic farmers on reduced disturbance systems.  The 2022 Award recognizes many years of dedicated service that CASI members have provided in extending information and increasing the adoption of improved performance production systems in California since 1998 when the organization was founded.  Tom also had the opportunity to meet USDA NRCS national Chief Tom Cosby at the Denver conference and he invited the Chief to meet with CA CIG Project organic farmers when he is coming to the state in September 2022.

May 30, 2022

The Lexicon of Sustainability's Gayeton visits Park Farming and Fully Belly Farm

Douglas Gayeyon, storyteller and creative force behind the Lexicon of Sustainability (https://www.thelexicon.org/) spent the better part of May 20, 2022 interviewing and photographing Scott and Brian Park of Park Farming in Meridian, CA and Paul Muller of Full Belly Farming in Guinda, CA as part of a book that he is working on that is going to be about regenerative agriculture.   He had been trying to work with the Parks and Muller for quite some time due to the reputations they have for being progressive farmers who have been putting great efforts into further improving their already outstanding farming systems.  The Parks, Muller and Andrew Brait at Full Belly are part of a broader group of California farmers who over the past three years have been exploring opportunities for reducing soil disturbance in their organic vegetable production practices.  While at Park Farming, Gayeton photographed Park showing a variety of innovative equipment that he has created and acquired over the years, an organic carrot seed production field, a cover crop roller trial, and an elaborate demonstration field where the Parks are evaluating nine different types of reduced disturbance systems for tomato production.  With Muller at Full Belly, he photographed Muller in one of his no-tillage fields and also captured images of Muller in an orchard where grazing sheep roam.  Gayeton will return to capture additional photos of the Parks' equipment fabrication shop in the near future.

March 20, 2022

CASI's Jeff Mitchell was invited to meet with eight researchers of the Rothamsted Research facility in Great Britain as part of a research exchange program organized by the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Davis along with several other campus researchers on March 17, 2022.  Rothamsted Research is the longest-running agricultural research institution in the world.  Its foundation dates from 1843.  The exchange was hosted by the Global Exchange Office at UC Davis and involved individual presentations and follow-up discussions between UC Davis researchers and the Rothamsted Research visitors.  Mitchell was asked to present a discussion on the topic of "Cooperative Extension in California" and shared several aspects of our CASI Center as well as the historical background of Cooperative Extension, the land-grant university, and the agricultural experiment station system in the United States.