{"id":1112,"date":"2012-01-23T16:07:40","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T23:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/?p=1112"},"modified":"2012-01-23T16:07:40","modified_gmt":"2012-01-23T23:07:40","slug":"porterville-recorder-organic-farming-moving-further-into-mainstream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/index.php\/2012\/01\/23\/porterville-recorder-organic-farming-moving-further-into-mainstream\/","title":{"rendered":"Porterville Recorder – Organic farming moving further into mainstream"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.recorderonline.com\/news\/long-51469-organic-hippies.html<\/a><\/p>\n

By ALEX\u00a0 K.W. SCHULTZ<\/a><\/p>\n

THE PORTERVILLE RECORDER<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Organic produce is no longer just for Birkenstock-donning, flannel shirt-wearing, long-haired hippies from San Francisco.<\/p>\n

That stereotype is long gone.<\/p>\n

What isn\u2019t gone \u2014 and doesn\u2019t appear to be going away any time soon \u2014 is a burgeoning group of consumers throughout the world who desire fresh fruits and vegetables that are free of synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers.<\/p>\n

John France, a local farmer and businessman, is one of many who has answered consumers\u2019 call for these crops, which can be labeled and sold as \u201corganic\u201d only if they meet certain federal regulations and criteria.<\/p>\n

France, a certified grower of organic crops since 1989, is the president of Porterville-based Homegrown Organic Farms, which markets and sells 15 different organic commodities for 45 farmers throughout California and Oregon.<\/p>\n

Last year, Homegrown administered the sale of more than 1 million cartons of organic produce for its growers. The company\u2019s cold storage and main distribution center, from which the organic goods are shipped nationwide and to Canada, is located in the small Kern County town of Arvin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a market in the world that I can\u2019t access,\u201d said France, whose own ranch, which is managed by Strathmore-based farm agriculture management company Agricare, is home to about 650 total acres of organic citrus, grapes, walnuts and blueberries in southern Tulare and Kern counties.<\/p>\n

For France and other organic producers, the markets are certainly there. The only potential obstacle is one of logistics.<\/p>\n

Unlike conventional farmers, organic growers don\u2019t apply post-harvest fungicides to their produce. These fungicides, in some years, can drastically extend the shelf life of some fruits and vegetables.<\/p>\n

So France said he and his organic brethren \u201chave to be on top of [their] game,\u201d making doubly sure that the crops are picked, packed and sold when the time is absolutely right. If not, the growers could suffer badly by losing out on adequate returns for their commodities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t just park stuff in a cold storage,\u201d France said. \u201cWe have to know what\u2019s in the cooler, how old it is, the condition of the fruit and when it comes out.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this way and others, organic farming is different from conventional farming.<\/p>\n

Organic producers have to grow organically for three years before they can become certified by federally accredited California Certified Organic Farmers. Their handling costs are higher, and they have to be more \u201cproactive\u201d rather than \u201creactive\u201d to make sure certain problems \u2014 ones that would be handled by traditional farmers with pesticides or other chemicals \u2014 don\u2019t arise in the first place.<\/p>\n

In a lot of ways, though, organic farmers are the same as their big brothers on the conventional side.<\/p>\n

Organic producers, just like traditional growers, have to keep their yields as high as possible. They have to know soils and climates, too. Most importantly, they have to deliver a quality product that consumers want.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not prepared and don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing,\u201d France said, \u201cyou can get upside down really quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

But France hasn\u2019t gone upside down \u2014 not even close. That\u2019s because he\u2019s made the proper investments, he\u2019s developed a solid business model and he\u2019s immersed himself in a market that seems to be growing by the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be willing to spend money to make money, just like in any business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Contact Alex K.W. Schultz at 784-5000, Ext. 1050 or aschultz@portervillerecorder.com.<\/p>\n

Follow him on Twitter @AlexKWSchultz.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.recorderonline.com\/news\/long-51469-organic-hippies.html By ALEX\u00a0 K.W. SCHULTZ THE PORTERVILLE RECORDER Organic produce is no longer just for Birkenstock-donning, flannel shirt-wearing, long-haired hippies from San Francisco. That stereotype is long gone. What isn\u2019t gone \u2014 and doesn\u2019t appear to be going away any … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\r\nPorterville Recorder - Organic farming moving further into mainstream - CDFA's Planting Seeds Blog<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/index.php\/2012\/01\/23\/porterville-recorder-organic-farming-moving-further-into-mainstream\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Porterville Recorder - Organic farming moving further into mainstream - CDFA's Planting Seeds Blog\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"http:\/\/www.recorderonline.com\/news\/long-51469-organic-hippies.html By ALEX\u00a0 K.W. 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