- Author: Jeffrey P. Mitchell
April 25, 2023
Phil and Katherine Foster host GOOGLE Food Lab for tour of Pinnacle Organically Grown Produce!
About 53 folks who were part of the GOOGLE Food Lab out of Mountain View, CA were treated to a half-day walking tour and lunch at the beautiful organic farm of Phil and Katherine just east of Hollister, CA on April 25, 2023. The GOOGLE Food Lab describes itself as "an invitation-only community of food leaders, change agents and visionaries, creating positive change across food systems." Pinnacle Organically Grown Produce was chosen to host part of the group's 2023 tour because of the farm's long-term leadership and pioneering progress on organic vegetable production systems that use a wide range of beneficial practices that contribute to the farm's diversity, soil health, employee welfare, and economic success. The multitude of the Fosters' practices including use of 'single-line' cover crops to conserve water, on-farm composting and routine field application of compost, hedgerows, and reduced disturbance tillage, were on display during the two-hour walking tours that Phil Foster along with Jeff Mitchell took the visitors on. The tour was coordinated by Eva Antczak of GOOGLE following an earlier visit to the farm by Michiel Bakker, GOOGLE's Vice President of Global Workplace Programs in 2022.
- Author: Jeffrey P. Mitchell
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.