Posts Tagged: sustainable agriculture

Students return to the farm

A capacity class of Marin College students returned to the Indian Valley Farm for the fall session of the school's new organic farm and environmental landscaping program, according to a post yesterday in the San Francisco Examiner's Sustainable Food blog by Jeri Lynn Chandler.

The program is a collaboration between the College of Marin, the Marin Conservation Corps and UC Cooperative Extension's Marin Master Gardeners. It is funded with a $374,254 College of Marin chancellor's grant and matching resources totaling $1,114,210 from more than 26 industry partners, the blog said.

“This is a welcome ray of light in an otherwise gloomy and dark economic climate,” said the College of Marin's Superintendent/President Frances White in an August news release. “These funds couldn’t have arrived at a better time and will ensure that our organic garden educational program continues to thrive.”

The four sustainable farm-related classes being held during the fall semester are Principles and Practices of Organic Farm and Gardening, Integrated Pest Management, Environmental Landscape Design and Introduction to Sustainable Horticulture.

A tractor demonstration at the Indian Valley Farm.

What is sustainable agriculture?

Like other famously difficult to define terms, capturing the meaning of "sustainable agriculture" often comes down to just knowing it when you see it. Even though, the California Farm Bureau Federation took another shot at figuring out just how to define what is an increasingly appealing agricultural concept, according to an article in the today's issue of AgAlert.

According to the story, delegates at the Farm Bureau's annual meeting discussed the meaning of sustainable agriculture. Here are some of their thoughts:

• "Sustainability is a new term for things we in agriculture have been doing forever." - San Joaquin County winegrape grower Brad Goehring

• "From a farmer's point of view, economics is most important because if you are not economically sustainable, you can't do anything at all." - Lodi winegrape grower Bruce Fry

•  "We have evolved toward a point in time where people are recognizing that you can't do things that are 'better for the planet' if firms are not economically viable in doing so, but the broader impacts also are increasingly being considered." - UC Davis Cooperative Extension agricultural economist Roberta Cook

• "All of the mainstream market leaders have sustainability programs from Wal-Mart, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Starbucks, Red Lobster and Sysco. This is about Wall Street as much as Main Street." - Jeff Dlott, president of SureHarvest, a company that creates sustainability tools and professional services (And formerly a UC Berkeley biological control scientist) 

• "Sustainability does resonate and it is going to be a huge thing in the marketplace going forward." - Aaron Lange of Lange Twins Winery in San Joaquin County

UC helps farmers grow grapes sustainably

The San Francisco Chronicle today ran a lengthy story about the trend in California vineyards toward more sustainable farming practices.

Freelance reporter Deborah Grossman noted that, decades ago, "entomologists at several UC campuses recognized a pending crisis from excessive chemical usage, which increased risks to worker health, pest outbreaks and pesticide resistance." Researchers introduced the concept of Integrated Pest Management in 1959.

Grossman interviewed San Luis Obispo County farmer Mitch Wyss. During the growing season, Grossman reported, Wyss consults a well-worn copy of "Grape Pest Management" by University of California researchers. Wyss counts leafhoppers in his vineyard weekly, purchases lacewings or ladybugs when numbers rise and uses a soft chemical spray only if needed.

The story contained information from a number of farmers and academics, including UC Riverside nematologist Michael McKenry, UC Berkeley Cooperative Extension specialist Kent Daane and UC Davis viticulturist Andy Walker.

McKenry commented on the difficulty of controlling nematodes without pesticides. "The only natural solution is to rotate the land," he is quoted.

Daane spoke about one of grape growers' newest pest challenges, the vine mealy bug. Daane told the reporter that the pest has few natural predators and is present year-round, breeding up to seven times a year.

Walker announced in March, the reporter wrote in the story, that new grape rootstocks are available with resistance to phylloxera and nematodes.

 

 

 

Vine mealy bug.

Read more