Farm Musings

Do you like salad? If you eat it, chances are the lettuce (or spinach or specialty green) you find in it come from here where I live. This field was just harvested today, for at least the third time this growing season. It is right next to where I work in Watsonville, which happens to be the home of Martinelli’s (the apple juice bottling company), Driscoll’s (the strawberry people), SunRidge Farms (the trail mix people), and Dole (produce kings). Watsonville grows more strawberries than anywhere in the world. Just 20 minutes down the road, Castroville is the artichoke-growing capital of the world. Inland 20 minutes is Gilroy, the main garlic-producer in the U.S. And Salinas, only 30 minutes south, is known as the world’s salad bowl. Earthbound Farms (organic lettuce and specialty produce grower) is 45 minutes south in Carmel. And there are others.

When most people think of Santa Cruz or the Central Coast, they probably think of surfing or skateboarding or coastline and beaches. Farming is actually a much larger way of life here than wave-riding. It just isn’t quite as glamorous. It’s true that large-scale farming has wiped out much of the small family farms everywhere in the U.S., but some small farmers seem to be eeking out an existence here, thanks to lots of local, regional, and statewide organizing and policy work, and organizations like Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and California Association of Family Farms (CAFF). The Association of Land-Based Agriculture even works with migrant farmworkers and seasonal workers to help them start to own their own farms and find niches in the market to support their families.

Campaigns like Buy Fresh Buy Local encourage the public here to invest their food dollars in locally-grown produce, and small family farms actually deliver produce boxes to local families who pay for a “share” of whatever they are harvesting. We are one such family, and we love it. The farm we own a “share” in delivers food from Monterey all the way to San Francisco. And local restaurants make a big deal about cooking with all local, in-season produce. It’s quite gourmet. People pay lots of money to eat at these restaurants, and at least some of the profit is passed on to the farms who supply those eateries with seasonal ingredients.

Here is the guy currently responsible for much of the policy around food and farming in California—A.G. Kawamura:




He is our current State Secretary of Food & Agriculture. I had a chance to hang out with him and his press secretary most of the day yesterday at our Nutrition Summit, where he was the keynote speaker and I was our press liason. He’s taking a lot of heat at the moment—and for legitimate reasons, I think—but I was impressed with him. Whatever California does well or poorly, one thing is sure: few states in the U.S. can say they’ve done more to work with family farmers to find new ways to compete in a market dominated by huge agribusiness. It was really neat to get a chance to meet someone who helps make that happen.