Organic vegetable markets continue to expand

Organic vegetables remain a growing field in California.

"We have a very robust organic industry here," said Richard Smith, a University of California Cooperative Extension vegetable crop advisor in Monterey County. "We're at about 9 percent of total ag value."

The county's 2016 agricultural production totaled $4.25 billion, according to the annual crop report, which said 179 organic producers accounted for $365.2 million in sales.

Statewide, California has slightly more than 1 million acres in organic production, according to California Certified Organic Farmers, and supplies 38 percent of U.S. organic commodity sales—including 64 percent of organic vegetable sales.

Oxnard-based Deardorff Family Farms grows organic vegetables in the Oxnard and Salinas areas as well as in Mexico. Luke Patruno, who works in organic sales for Deardorff, said its main organic crops include celery, kale, broccoli and cauliflower, plus a mix of green, red leaf and romaine lettuce.

"Labor and water are issues that still continue to haunt both conventional and organic growers," Patruno said. "We currently see shortfalls with labor supply over the next few weeks, as product becomes more plentiful in the Salinas area and Oxnard volume dwindles down for the summer months."

Patruno said the company's top sellers are celery, kale and broccoli, though he added that processed items such as salads "seem to be where there's stronger growth."

All that growth can lead to some growing pains, with organic producers taking on some of the same issues as their conventional brethren.

"Both organic and conventional growers are facing severe labor shortages," said Kelly Damewood, director of policy and government affairs for CCOF in Santa Cruz. "Organic growers especially need a stable labor force, because they often rely more on hand labor than conventional growers for weed management."

The regulatory environment can be an issue as well, Damewood said.

"Policy makers are implementing standards that hold organic growers to the same standards as conventional growers, without taking into consideration that organic growers do not use synthetic inputs," Damewood said.

In Monterey County, one of the main organic commodities is baby spinach, which is susceptible to downy mildew, Smith said.

"In our area, that basically reduces the yield of the crop," he said. "Once they see downy mildew coming into a field, they'll just harvest it and try and get it out of there before things get out of hand. If that happens when the plant is still a little bit young, then they take a hit on the yield."

Organic fungicides have a limited effect on downy mildew, Smith said.

"We look at resistant varieties, harvesting earlier, trying to locate in an area where there's lower inocula," meaning the spores from which the mildew grows, he added.

"The problem with downy mildew is that we have all these strains of it, and they keep developing, so the seed companies are constantly trying to develop new varieties that are resistant," Smith said. "Sometimes you might hit a lapse where there's basically no resistance before the release of the next batch of resistant varieties."

Broccoli is susceptible to root maggots and to cabbage aphids, which can establish themselves in the head and become contaminants, Smith said. To help control the aphids, he said, organic farmers can call on beneficial insects.

"(Farmers) plant habitat that's favorable to those beneficial insects—they plant flowers, certain types of small flowered plants like alyssum," Smith said.

Cabbage aphids' natural enemies include lady beetles, syrphid fly larvae, fungal diseases, and the parasitic wasp Diaeretiella rapae, according to UCCE.

Farmers thinking of jumping into the organic trade will face a learning curve, Smith said.

"You have to learn a lot about biological control," he said. "You have to learn a lot about how the fertilizers work, because they work differently and they're more expensive."

In using organic fertilizers, "you have to be proactive," Smith said. "You have to put nutrients on in anticipation of the need by the crop, because they take more time to break down."

(Kevin Hecteman is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. He may be reached at khecteman@cfbf.com.)