UC helps maintain the state’s agricultural roots in scenic settings In some of California’s more picturesque, traditionally agricultural counties – where the outstretched limbs of 500-year-old wild oaks shade California’s happiest cows, where coastal air perfectly cools vineyards on summer evenings, where small communities take pride in their rural surroundings – it’s getting harder to farm. Land prices have skyrocketed, competition from large farms in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys is fierce, and urbanization is creeping in. The University of California Cooperative Extension, established in 1914 to increase farm productivity and improve rural life, is increasingly offering support to farmers in counties where beautiful scenery and favorable climates threaten their agricultural industries. Marin County is one example. Positioned on a peninsula just across a bridge from prosperous San Francisco, Marin County in the 1850s boasted sprawling Mexican cattle ranches. In 2005, Marin was the site of the highest median priced Bay Area homes. Despite the changing economics, half the county’s land is still actively farmed or ranched. More than 35,000 acres on 53 farms and ranches are part of an agricultural land trust that protects them from development. The fact that farming is entrenched in Marin is heartening, however, a survey of farmers by UC Cooperative Extension found that 63 percent consider their operations unprofitable or marginally profitable. UCCE creates marketing coalitions to bolster agricultural economies In 2002, UCCE, working with a group of farmers, local government, educators, nonprofit organizations and environmental groups, created “Grown in Marin” to strengthen the viability and long-term success of agriculture in the county. Grown in Marin has a permanent staff member funded by the county and based at the UCCE office. “Grown in Marin is benefiting from an unusually harmonious collaboration between the agricultural and environmental communities and the willingness of local government to go the extra mile to help farming and ranching survive in the county,” said Ellen Rilla, director of UCCE in Marin County who led development of Grown in Marin. The organization has demonstrated tremendous success, spinning off a weekly farmers’ market, a local organic certification organization and a grass-fed beef certification program. A visit to Marin County in November 2005 by Great Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla drew national attention to the program’s achievements. The royal couple toured the farmers’ market and enjoyed a lunch of locally grown organic fare, during which the prince stressed the urgency of promoting and protecting small-scale family farms and organic agriculture. Grown in Marin is one of five county-based marketing programs established with UCCE at the helm to do just that. The concept had its origins in Sonoma County, an equally beautiful locale just north of Marin. In 1989, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Paul Vossen spearheaded the formation of “Select! Sonoma,” the first regional agricultural marketing organization in the nation. Select! Sonoma was a trendsetter, but has struggled in permanently sustaining the membership-based, public-private organization. Select! Sonoma served as a model for the creation of “PlacerGROWN,” “Farms of Amador,” “Market Glenn,” “CalaverasGROWN” and the soon-to-be-established “Farms of Tuolumne.” Each program is unique and designed to meet the specific needs of the small-scale agricultural industry in the county. They currently range in scope from the well-established, county-funded “Grown in Marin” to the newly created Market Glenn, which, in its initial stages, is a Web site that aims simply to bring consumers, producers and suppliers of local agricultural products and services together. Ultimately, all the programs are intended to:
Programs support foothill ag communities UCCE director Roger Ingram facilitated the development of PlacerGROWN in 1994 with funding from the Placer County Board of Supervisors. “We conducted the producer meetings, assisted with educational programming and brought in high-powered speakers for the annual conference,” Ingram said. “But the key was that this was a producer organization.” Another key to the success of the program was the Placer County Board of Supervisors’ willingness to fund a permanent staff member to coordinate PlacerGROWN activities. Public relations efforts resulted in extensive media coverage for such Placer County commodities as specialty mandarin oranges and dried persimmons. Each winter, more than 200 small-scale and entry level farmers and agricultural industry representatives attend the PlacerGROWN conference. In Calaveras County, UCCE director Ken Churches led the effort to form CalaverasGROWN in 1999. “We knew we had to do something for agriculture in our county,” Churches said. “We’re not like the large-commodity counties in the valley. We needed to find a niche for ourselves.” One of the farmers active in CalaverasGROWN is Bill Vierra, a transplant from Fremont who raises grain-fed worms to produce high-quality worm castings, an organic soil amendment. “Family farms don’t have a budget to promote their products. They can grow tomatoes and other vegetables, but wonder, ‘How do I market them?’ That’s where CalaverasGROWN goes to work,” said Vierra, who is president of the organization.
“The best thing we’ve done is make the identifiable logo,” Vierra said. “When you see it on a product, you know it has been grown or raised in the county. Labeling a product ‘locally grown’ means only that it was produced in California. CalaverasGROWN has made a lot of folks aware of the different types of agriculture right here in Calaveras County.” Farms of Amador was established in 2002 under the direction of UCCE program representative Scott Oneto. The organization developed a Farm Trails Map, available in pdf format on its Web site or as a paper edition by request. The map gives information about and directions to farms offering specialty olive oil, organic vegetables, estate wines and fresh fruit in season. Each of the marketing organizations has a presence on the Web. For more information, visit the following Web pages. Grown in Marin – http://growninmarin.org PlacerGROWN – http://placergrown.org Farms of Amador – http://www.farmsofamador.ucanr.org CalaverasGROWN – http://cecalaveras.ucdavis.edu Market Glenn – http://ceglenn.ucdavis.edu/Custom%5FProgram Contacts for the individual marketing programs are:
(April 2006) |
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Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California. All contents November 22, 2009 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. |
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CalaverasGROWN commissioned a logo featuring a frog to link it with community pride generated by Mark Twain’s classic short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”