At Pacific Ridge, a second generation
family strawberry farm which I recently visited with Stonyfield, farm manager
Kelly Wilmer likens strawberries to the "potato on the dinner plate."
I couldn’t agree more - they bring me
back to 4th of July’s in Michigan
with my family, full of angel food cake, homemade whipped cream, and tons of
fresh-picked strawberries.
Although they are a much-loved
American summer staple, conventional strawberry production in the US can be
anything but sweet. Conventional
strawberries are often cited as among the most pesticide
intense, and as in much of US
agriculture, many strawberry farmworkers to do not enjoy the
labor protections of other US
industries.
Because of this, Stonyfield has
developed labor and greenhouse gas toolkits to engage their US fruit farmer
suppliers in a conversation about sustainability, to benchmark practices at the
farm level, and to collectively improve practices for the future. There is a
real need for innovation in US
agriculture, practices which are mutually beneficial practices for farmers,
workers, consumers, and the earth. Pacific Ridge is doing its part with organic
production and thoughtful hired farm labor projects. And each toolkit subject area conjured
interesting stories and reflections from Kelly.
The Stonyfield greenhouse gas
emission toolkit asks farmers about crop rotation in addition to cover crops,
weeding, pest management, and practices that will be unique depending on the
farm’s location and conditions. During
my visit, I learned that Pacific Ridge operates eight parcels of organic
farmland, adjusting practices parcel by parcel to the fickle demands of
southern California weather – fog, heat, and
the Santa Ana
winds. Strawberries demand a lot of the
soil when they grow, and since Pacific Ridge owns multiple plots of land, they are able to rotate broccoli, kale, and other
vegetables with the strawberry crops on off-seasons to return important nutrients to the soil.
Kelly and I also talked about the
situation of hired farmworkers in the strawberry fields, and her attempts to
provide year-round labor. Steady work is
a very common problem in US
agriculture, as the work moves with the seasons. California
farmworkers follow a migratory route that can take them from Mexico to Oxnard
to Watsonville
and back in a year. It’s a chicken and
egg problem – without year round work in one place, farmworkers will
migrate. Without farmworkers in one
place all year round, there is little incentive for farmers to invest in
housing for workers. And so on.
Kelly is collaborating with local
companies to see if there are joint synergies to ‘pool’ work between fruit
harvests and between job functions to create this steady labor. For example, Pacific Ridge has strawberry
fields as well as facilities to freeze the berries. The company could freeze more berries from
other farmers, creating jobs for the same workers to pick and freeze
strawberries. Seems simple, but the
industry is so fragmented that these initiatives are fewer than you might
expect.
All in all, I learned a lot during my
visit to Pacific Ridge about the precarious balance between labor rights,
environmental sustainability, business practices, the US legal system, and the harsh US agriculture
scene. The types of companies that Stonyfield
strives to source from are those – like Pacific Ridge - that can be innovative,
flexible, are transparent, and willing to go the extra steps to improve their
practices year by year. Sustainability
is a dynamic process, and not a checklist of practices. That’s what’s making my summer internship so
challenging, and yet so much fun.
Next up – from the fruit farm to the
yogurt factory … my journey continues!
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