Water, Environmental Sustainability and Farms

Many of us have idyllic ideas about farming. Of course, it's a lot more complicated than watering tomatoes and wearing a sun hat.

At the last  class, the 21 local politicians and professionals (myself included) got a quick education in the more serious aspect of local agriculture: land use, water and environmental sustainability.

"Pretty much everything affects farming," said Farm Bureau President and orchid grower Chris Enright.

Enright one of the experts who spoke to the Focus Agriculture class during its April program. (We meet again today, May 11, to explore the UC Santa Cruz aboreteum and the North Coast.)

But last month, here's a recap of what we learned:

• Enright talked a lot about land use and touched on Watsonville City Council Member Daniel Dodge's effort to 
• Marc Los Huertos, an associate professor at CSU-Monterey Bay, spoke about environmental sustainability. He's been working on water quality issues in the region for 20 years. One big problem in the Pajaro Valley is groundwater and surface leeching of nitrogen. Regulations have been a mess, he said, but growers are doing a better job of managing the issue. The upside? The problems increased up to 1985 but have held steady while crop production has increased.
• Bill Kocher, Santa Cruz water director and co-program manager scwd2 Desalination Program, talked about desalination. "There's a fight brewing," Kocher said, talking about urban versus agriculture water consumption.
• Mary Lou Nicoletti, the county Agricultural Commissioner, and Dan Legard, Director of Research for California Strawberry Commission, spoke about fumigants and pesticides, namely those used in the strawberry industry. There's been huge upheaval in that realm in the past couple of years, as methyl bromide was outlawed, then methyl iodide was pulled from the market earlier this year. A new fumigant, dimethyl disulphide, could be the next for the fields, Nicoletti said. "I'm hopeful there will be another tool for growers to use," she said.

We learned a lot, but the highlight of last month's Focus Ag class was the tour of Ocean Mist Farms shipping facility in Castroville by Mark Reasons (see photo), who talked about food safety. I'll share more about this soon!

-----

Patch Editor Jennifer Squires is a member the Focus Agriculture Class XXIII. She will write about the nine-class program, which covers topics such as ethnic groups in agriculture, new technology and diversity of commodities locally grown. In addition, there are many farm tours and hands-on experiences.