CalMAX Connection Winter 2004

by Maggie Coulter

The production and delivery of food in the United States generates waste at nearly every step from fertilization and pest control, to packaging, shipping, processing, preparation, and consumption. However, there are also abundant possibilities for sustainability, including waste reduction and resource conservation, as evidenced by the practices of community-supported agriculture (CSA) and small organic farms.

Through CSAs, consumers buy their produce directly from a relatively local grower. They may pick it up at the farm or from a central location or even get it delivered to them. The CSA concept started in the 1960s in Europe and Japan as consumers, concerned about health, wanted more control over where their food was coming from and how it was produced. The first CSAs in the United States were started in the mid-1980s in Massachusetts. Today, the U.S. has more than a thousand CSAs, including 75 in California. About 80 percent of the more than two million farms in the U.S. are small farms, and the number of farms utilizing organic practices is growing.

Laguna Farm and Soil Born Farm

CSA Laguna Farm and organic Soil Born Farm are two CalMAX users that illustrate some of the sustainability potentials and challenges of alternative agriculture. Laguna Farm, located in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, has been raising organically grown produce for nearly two decades on its 50 acres. "We currently have 360 members and our goal is 400," says farm owner Scott Mathieson, whose grandfather purchased the farm in the 1960s.

Laguna offers members a range of services, including different weekly pickup/delivery options and different box sizes. Members can do some switching of items in the box if they come into the farm to pick it up; they can also purchase extras like eggs produced by the 80 chickens on the farm. Laguna also supplements the produce it grows with that from other adjacent organic farms to increase variety and to fill in during the winter when Laguna’s production is low.

Soil Born is a new, much smaller, certified organic urban farm located in Sacramento on 3 acres, half of which are in cultivation. Started in 1999 by Marco Franciosa and Shawn Harrison, both graduates of the Ecological Horticultural program at UC Santa Cruz, Soil Born is now its second growing season. The farm currently sells to restaurants and at a local farmers market. Future plans include adding 80 apple, peach, and pluot trees and creating a nonprofit CSA that will serve about 40 families. "We are also acquiring another 20 acres to raise food for sale and for low income communities and school lunch programs," explains Harrison. “Over time, both sites will have also have education and training programs.”

Growing the Produce
Waste reduction at Laguna starts with the soil. "We don’t buy fertilizer, which is mostly made from nonrenewable petroleum," explains Mathieson. "One thing we do is practice crop rotation so that the soil can replenish itself rather than have the same nutrients taken by continual planting of the same crop. We use compost that we produce from green waste on site. We plant cover crops like bell beans, annual rye grass, and vetch that put nutrients back into the soil. We also are fortunate to get natural siltation from the Laguna de Santa Rosa that floods the property annually."

Waste Challenges
But the crop production phase also has its challenges. Laguna Farm has one permanent greenhouse and up to 20 temporary ones during the winter season. Each greenhouse is covered with about 2,400 square feet of thick plastic which will last about six years. The farm also uses roughly 120,000 square feet of petroleum-based, fine-spun fabric to protect crops like chard and spinach from insects. The fabric gets reused for about 2-3 years and then it starts to fall apart and becomes waste. "As we are able to educate our members that less than picture-perfect produce is still acceptable and they can accept some marring from insects, we can also reduce the use of the fabric," notes Mathieson.

Laguna Farm volunteer and local recycling consultant, Chris Carrieri, has been helping to get various farm discards recycled, including the plastic. "There are markets for film plastics, but the problems are baling and getting to those markets. Laguna Farms produces about ten bagged cubic yards of film plastic waste per year. That is not enough for companies that want this product to pick it up, but it is enough material to make the effort to divert it from the landfill."

One way that Carrieri has been able to divert some of the plastic is through a nearby grocery store. "The Sebastopol Safeway will include some additional clean film plastic in the loads of recyclables their truckers backhaul from various store locations," explains Carrieri. He requested that Safeway accept Laguna’s pallet wrap and LDPE film for recycling, provided the farm take responsibility for transporting the material to the store.

"Markets for different types of film plastics continue to emerge in California," explains Carrieri. “Companies like Trex, which makes plastic lumber, and Marathon Recovery, which makes siding from recycled wood and plastic, are willing to collect plastic if baled as are most of the haulers in the North Bay. One scenario would be to have centralized collection and baled quantities. Small farms such as Laguna are already making regular disposal trips to the landfall or transfer stations, so self-hauling is not a problem.”

Soil Born also uses cover crops that are planted after the harvest and then disked back into the soil to add nutrients. "We are also looking at doing 'mow and plant,' an approach in which the cover crop is mowed and the seeds are planted through it," described Franciosa. "This has the advantage of not disturbing the microorganisms in the soil which are critical to healthy plants; every time you dig into the soil, you change the structure and habitat for those beneficial organisms." Soil Born also uses certified organic compost—made from green waste by Grover Landscaping—and organic fish emulsion.

Soil Born has been able to do pest management by providing habitat for beneficial insects. "We plant sages, yarrow, buckwheat, and lavender to attract pollinators like bees and also wasps," explains Harrison.

Weeds are another major pest at Soil Born and are suppressed by mulching with organic rice hulls (a by-product of rice production). For weeds like nut sedge and bermuda grass, they have covered large areas with black plastic to kill the weed seeds by heat. This of course, generates black plastic waste, currently about 20,000 square feet annually.

Soil Born has plastic waste from its greenhouse. The irrigation drip lines and tape have a 2-3 year life span; generating about 2,000 linear feet of waste plastic annually. Like Mathieson, Soil Born’s owners are willing to haul their plastic so that it could be recycled.

Transportation
Transportation is an area in which CSAs are especially effective in conserving resources and contributing to sustainability. According to the University of Massachusetts Extension, food in the U.S. travels an average of 1,300 miles from farm to market shelf. Because CSAs serve their local communities, the transportation distance is very low, almost negligible for urban farms like Soil Born. Lowering transportation distance means reducing dependency on nonrenewable fossil fuels, reducing the pollution associated with all phases of the production of those fuels, reducing demands on roadways, etc.

"As with many areas, advertising promotes unconscious consumption, not long-term health and sustainability," notes Mathieson. "This relates to an important part of our work as a CSA, which is to educate our members about eating in season. We have choices as consumers. One of those choices is to support the health of the planet and local economies by buying local, in-season organic produce."

Both Laguna and Soil Born have faced challenges getting their food to market, and Laguna has educated its members in the process. "Members used to get their produce in a returnable plastic container with a lid," explains Carrieri. "People would forget to bring these back and they would not last as long from all the handling and exposure. Now when members come to pick up their produce, it is in the plastic box, but the box stays here and the members repack the food into re-used paper or cloth bags or boxes which they bring."

Soil Born packs its produce in used clean cardboard boxes that it collects during deliveries and then relabels. Both farms do end up with excess boxes, however. This is particularly true of Laguna, which is also getting produce from other farms to supplement what it gives to its members. Wooden crates are reused or broken down and laid on the ground to prevent weed growth; waxed cardboard is similarly used as mulch. Soil Born's compost bins are made from reused wood pallets.

Energy
Laguna Farms has a variety of energy needs, including all of its farm equipment, barn buildings, residential structures, and a large walk-in refrigerator. About 20 percent of Laguna's electricity needs are met by solar panels; they also have a small 400-watt wind generator. All of Laguna’s equipment runs on used vegetable oil, a waste by-product from Spectrum Oils in Petaluma.

Mathieson wants to generate additional electricity by converting his diesel generator so that it will also run on vegetable oil. He has been able to reduce the energy costs of the walk-in refrigerator by shutting it off for several hours during peak load time (when the cost per kilowatt is six times higher than off-peak times). Straw bales serve as external insulation to keep the cool from escaping, and 15-gallon water-filled containers inside the walk-in absorb heat as the inside temperature starts to rise when the mechanical cooling system is shut off. The 15-gallon containers were originally used to hold teat cleaner for a nearby dairy.

Soil Born's only mechanization is a gas-powered rototiller. Most of the work is done by human labor provided by the owners, community volunteers, and an apprentice who receives room and board in exchange for learning about organic farming.

The CalMAX visit to Soil Born helped facilitate a connection with another community urban farmer and CalMAX user, David Breinke. Breinke operates his equipment with biodiesel and offered to help the Soil Born farmers with their future equipment needs. (To learn more about biodiesel, see the CalMAX Spring 2003 Connections article.

Wish List
Both Laguna and Soil Born would like to find nonlandfill options for the discards they can’t reuse, compost, or recycle on their farms. In addition to the film and other plastics, Soil Born also needs to dispose of scrap concrete and rotted wood.

In terms of wanted items, Laguna Farm is looking for tree seedlings for its watershed restoration project and 5-gallon plastic buckets. As a new farm Soil Born's wanted list is a bit longer, including six-pack plant containers, wood chips and mulch for the new fruit trees they will be planting, 8-foot metal t-posts, irrigation equipment, reusable used wood (especially 2 X 4s), metal hoops for more permanent greenhouse structures (these will last longer than the PVC that is now used). Soil Born is also looking for more apprentices. "Can we put an ad in CalMAX for people?" smiles Harrison.

Contact information:

Scott Mathieson
Laguna Farm
1764 Cooper Road
Sebastopol, CA 95472
(707) 823-0823
info@lagunafarm.com
www.lagunafarm.com

Shawn Harrison
Marcos Franciosa
Soil Born Farm
3000 Hurley Way
Sacramento, CA 95864
(916) 718-3563
bubba18@earthlink.net

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Last updated: December 30, 2008