King Grove Farm, Florida

Hugh & Lisa Kent of King Grove Organic Farm talk about what makes their blueberries more than an ordinary organic berry found in supermarkets. They touch the land with loving hands, and the land replies with a profusion of jaw-droppingly good berries.

“Sure, we might sell more blueberries if we grew in plastic buckets instead of rich soil, used harsh chemicals, and chose blueberry plant varieties developed to elevate yield over quality. But we couldn’t happily live on that land, or put the King Grove name on that kind of product.”

April – June, King Grove Organics ships nationwide – visit their website here to order the best berries you've ever tasted, shipped ripe and arriving perfectly ready to eat.

Know Your Farmer | King Grove Organic Farm, Florida

Hugh Kent:

“When the organic consumer is paying a premium for organic food, they are expecting not just good food but are expecting us to use their support to take good care of our land for the future. I take my promise to them very seriously – to me it's a sacred promise.

The farm was a conventional citrus farm before we converted it to organic blueberries. The organic decision was easy for me. The word has an inner meaning now. If it's not sustainable, that doesn't mean it's neutral, it means it's UNsustainable. If it's unsustainable, ultimately it's destructive and I didn't want to farm in a destructive way, I wanted to farm constructively.

It was important to me to be able to grow very healthy food for people and do that in a way where I could leave the land healthier and more productive than when I started. The foundation of our organic system is to make the soil as healthy as we can, get as much variety and microbial activity in the soil and allow the plants to pick and choose what they need from that environment.

The plant knows what to do from there.

Find a Real Organic Farm Near You

King Grove Organic Farm Is Being Harmed by Hydroponic Competition

They're saying “go ahead, go out there, compact the land and level it so it's unsuitable for farming” This is a huge problem for people like me. Because allowing that cheap hydroponic system, a disposable plastic farm, to be labeled as organic the same way that this farm is labeled as organic creates a situation where, on the shelf, the consumer has no idea.

The prices may be different but they have no idea what it is they are buying or how it was grown.

The standards are so lax and they've been eroded so much. There's so much lack of integrity now in the USDA's administration of the National Organic Program.

If Farmer A is growing real organic, and farmer B has got this hydroponic organic… then Farmer A has two choices:

Go out of business or adapt to the hydroponic system…

Or a third choice is to explain to people that their product is different and worth more money. That's my job – to explain to people what's going on.

It's frustrating that the hydroponic industry should explain why it's good but they don't. They never are labeled as hydroponic and it confuses the issue and ignores the fundamental differences in the growing methods.

People in the general public don't understand the importance of the soil – it's not just about clean food – it's also about stewardship:

Of the farms where it's produced: taking seriously the obligation to care for the immediate environment (woodlands, wetlands, soil quality). That's how real communities are retained.

If we have more sustainable farms in this country, we bring back the health of our rural communities. The primary intention of the statues that made the National Organic Program was the stewardship of the soil… it's the living organisms that are in the soil that create this quality of the food. We're now understanding now is that this is where there's a huge potential for carbon sequestration.

Good healthy soil isn't just for growing good healthy plants that sustain healthy people, it's also about the larger system. It's also about having a healthy planet.”

A-Frame Farm, Minnesota

Carmen Fernholtz of A-Frame Farm talks about what is important when it comes to Organic Farming. Organics were founded on principles and proper practices.

“Do organic not because the price is better, but because it's the right thing to do for the soil for society and for yourself.”

Be sure to check out A-Frame Farm, Minnesota's facebook page.

Know Your Farmer | A-Frame Farm, Minnesota

Carmen Fernholtz:

My name is Carmen Fernholtz. My wife, Sally and I farmed about 450 acres certified organic near Madison Minnesota. Madison is located very Western edge of the state. We grow generally the

crops in the area corn soybeans small grains that'll vary from year to year wheat oats barley and some alfalfa.

When you were here earlier today you caught me out in the field. My nephew and brother had both brought to come by not. We were going to take our first go at a harvesting Kernza, Kernza is what we call a perennial wheat. Kernza is a miniature wheat seed.

And I say miniature Yeah, it's maybe an eighth the size of a regular wheat kernel. To me the biggest piece here is that we can keep the soil covered something growing in there '12 months of the year minimizing the soil disturbance captivating a lot of carbon and just moving closer and closer to emulating nature.

You know there's a lot of talk out there now about how organic is sort of becoming industrialized and I am nervous about that. I really am because back in the early 70s. I was actually helping write some of the rules in organics and eventually, the government adapted some of these things and put them into the standards. But organics was always founded on principles, as well as production practices. And to me, the principle is based on West Jackson's famous quote and it's probably not his original but anyway, I always credit him with it, eyes to acres ratio.

We need to increase instead of decrease the eyes to acres ratio and that's the principle that I've always wanted to live on. And so it's not free. It costs something. But look at what you're doing then and protecting the environment enhancing the communities and everybody just does better really today. When I look back over the years, I've been doing it. I'm starting to see some pressures that I'm a little nervous about.

A-Frame Farm has organic integrity

I've always said over and over and over. Organic is 95% integrity. But another good friend of mine says expect what you inspect. And so if we're not doing proper oversight Human nature says we're going to try and cut corners again, when we look at the standards. And we look at and be real direct. We look at the standards of hydroponics and we look at housing for livestock.

Those standards are not what we had originally intended when we started putting together these standards that we wanted access to outdoors. We wanted that crops growing in the soils is what we wanted. And when we start cutting those corners it doesn't stop there. Patrick Lee you said when the organic bill was signed he said organic is a choice.

It's not a directive. It's a choice. And so you as a farmer and you as a consumer have this choice. And you can choose or not choose it. 

We can keep those standards strict we can maintain that strictness because if you don't like them, then you find a different source of your food. But this is what we want. This is the choice that we've made.

You know a  topic today is climate change and what's causing it and who is Responsible. With perennials in the landscape we're taking a lot of that carbon out of the air and storing it back down in the soil. And if we look at some of the Kerns of, for example, they're down 8, 10, 12 feet. Those roots are down there forever and they've take in carbon down there with them.

More scientists tell you that it's the increase of CO2 in the air that's causing climate change. So we can pull that back out, put it in the ground. It's a win-win-win. It's a win for the farmer, environment, consumer, and for the soil.

Durst Organic Growers, California

Jim Durst, farm director at Durst Organic Growers, was a member of the California organic certification board when the organic standards for CCOF were first being debated and written. In his “Know Your Farmer” video, Jim explains that agriculture should be built upon the premise that the soil brings us life.

Know Your Farmer | Durst Organic Growers, California

Jim Durst: Organic is all about soil. It is about putting as much carbon and nutrients back into the soil as you take out – or hopefully more! My philosophy is: healthy soils make healthy plants, and healthy plants make healthy people, and healthy people make healthy communities.

Farming at Durst Organic Growers, California

Our farm is in central California – in Yolo County. We currently farm about 700 acres, and our major crops are asparagus and snap peas (in the spring), cherry tomatoes and seedless watermelons. (in the summer), and in the fall we start out winter squash. Our markets are mostly into the wholesale and retail markets across the United States. So we do ship to the East Coast and to the Pacific Northwest, but a good deal of our product stays on the west coast. During production time we have about 175 people working here and we try to pay above what anybody else pays for wages.

Competition from Mexico

I'm in the tomato business, and our season is only four months long, but right now we're getting a lot of competition coming out of Mexico. At our farm, we pay more in one hour than they do in 10 hours in Mexico. Where's the parody there? And that's organic; I'm glad they're growing organic. However, it's not Mexican farmers who are growing organically. They are mostly California farmers who got tired of the regulations in this state and moved their operations to Mexico. Then they're sending it back up here because they have marketing organizations all set up in this country.

A Broken Food Distribution System

The hardest thing for new farmers is getting food into a local supermarket – one that's within 5 or 10 miles of the farm. It is pretty difficult because the grocery stores already have established buying channels, and these buying channels are tied into big marketing organizations that are working all over the world.

Unless you can tie into one of those marketing organizations, there are very few retailers that will give you a spot on the shelf – even if you only have 10 boxes [of produce]. The retailers don't want 10 boxes; they want what they want. They want how many they want. You have to be able to produce and keep up with them if you want to be one of their preferred providers.

There is something about the distribution system that we are working in right now that is probably unhealthy. We need to decentralize our distribution systems. We have developed a culture that is addicted to strawberries 360 days out of the year. They don’t even taste good out of season!

Shaping Organic in California

When I joined California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) in 1984, I became Certification Chair for our chapter – this meant that I was automatically on the state certification board. At that time, we were writing a lot of the rules and the regulations for organic agriculture in California. Every week, we just hammered on one point, and wrote, and rewrote, and finally came up with things that we thought had to do with the integrity of working with the soil and creating healthy soil.

Agriculture, wherever you are, should be built upon the premise that the soil brings us life. We have a responsibility to return, enhance, and build up the life in the soil. It's a living creature. The soil is not dead. It's a living thing. When we learn this, as a culture, we will have a different outlook on how we fit into this planet.

There is a lot of philosophy in the organic rules. We were constantly asking, “How are we going to steward this in a way that is sustainable, not just for our generation, but for generations to come?”

For us, working with people and working with plants and working outside –  It doesn't get any better than that.

Frey Vineyards, California

The Frey family has been farming in Redwood Valley, California since 1980. Eliza Frey, winemaker at Frey Vineyards, says that healthy and diverse soil profiles are the basis of their wine quality.

Know Your Farmer | Frey Vineyards, California

Eliza Frey: One of the reasons that we want to be part of the Real Organic Project is just to make sure that organic farming literally keeps its roots in the soil.

Farm Overview and Organic Methodology at Frey Vineyards, California

We farm about 325 acres of grapes, and that is about a third of our production. Some of our fruit is bought from other vineyards in the area, so in total, we are sourcing from around 1,000 acres. We are lucky that here in Mendocino County we have the highest percentage of certified organic vineyards in terms of our acreage.

Our grapes are not fertilized beyond working with soil fertility. We incorporate a small amount of compost every couple of years, and cover cropping is our main fertility method. But we've noticed that with a little bit lower fertility, you often get a nicer quality in the grapes. The vines need to work a little harder in order to get what they need, but then the flavor and the quality is better.

One of the things that is rather unique about our winery is that we are both grower and processors certified organic. In order to use the term “organic wine,” the grapes obviously have to be grown organically, but then the whole process of the wine making has to be certified organic too. So that means you cannot use any synthetic additives or processing aids or preservatives. That is important to us – that we carry it all the way through, both the grower and processor certified organic.

Nutrition Starts with the Soil

One of the main reasons that people are drawn to organics is for health – their body health and the health of the planet. There is a lot of research to come in the next few years about the nutritional qualities that soils can bring into food and then pass on to people.

Soil is the base of the quality of our wine. A term that a lot of people are familiar with in wine is terroir, which is the unique quality given to the grapes and wine from the land where it is grown. California is pretty young (geologically) with a lot of tectonic movement, so we have a wide variety of soil compositions. Even though most of our vineyards are within about 20 to 30-mile range, we have many different soil profiles.

I am personally passionate about the whole concept of soil health and the mysteries beneath the soil. Soil science was seen as something that was inorganic for so long in the history of agriculture. There was the belief that the different soil components and nutrients were static, and in order to remediate something, you just add more of another. There is a huge body of research and experience that has been growing over the last several years that says that it is the life in the soil that really dictates the whole nutrient flow.

There is no lack of nutrients or minerals in the soil. There is plenty of nitrogen there, there is plenty of phosphorus, there is plenty of potassium, there is plenty of everything you need, and what a lot of soils lack is just the biology to access it.

Decreasing the Carbon Footprint

Many people are not aware of the role of organic farming in topics like climate change and the carbon footprint of agriculture. The carbon footprint of a lot of the inputs that are used in conventional agriculture is really vast, and that is something that I have just started learning over the last decade or so. It is not only the distance that your food needs to travel to get to you, but all of the inputs on the farm had to come from somewhere as well.

Really focusing on the hydroponics – it is just a full-on input system. Whereas if you grow in healthy soils and have that biology, you don't need all of those inputs. The soil food web will take care of a lot of that. So we want to harness that and work with nature.

Creating Community

One of the beautiful things about people getting more educated about some of the issues in [organic certification] is the sense of community that is fostered. It takes a little bit more vigilance and research on the part of the consumer, but there is also a lot to be gained with having relationships with your farmer and knowing where your food comes from. It is one of the things lot of small vegetable farmers that I know talk about – just that sense of community and that sense of camaraderie that happens when you know where your food comes from. It is really enriching to the human spirit and something that we can all strive for a little more.

I do still feel like the USDA Organic label is probably your best assurance if that is all that you have. It will be exciting to see more and more products with the Real Organic label on them, which gives people another lens into their choices.

Updates from Frey Vineyards, California: Rebuilding After Wildfires

In 2017, we had wildfires that came through Redwood Valley and burned down our winemaking facility, all of our corporate offices, and a bunch of homes of the different family members in the Frey family. So, one of the responses to that is a whole rebuilding effort. People are building new homes and we are building a new winery. This is going to be a crushing facility where grapes are brought from our own farms and from the farms that we buy from. It will also be a processing and bottling facility. We will have all of the presses, tanks, and everything that we need to make and bottle our wine. Our offices will also be here. Ever since the fires happened, we have been disjointed. We had an office rental in the nearby town and a modular office. It’ll be nice to regroup and be here together – we're very excited about that.