High-Yielding Organic Farming

Some weeds produce 250,000 viable seeds per plant. When you’re an organic farmer caring for your soil and crops by hand, one weed can cause a huge problem!

So why do farmers go organic if it’s so difficult?

In this episode I talked to Russel Hamlin, General Manager at Grimmway Farms, about organic agriculture, the challenges of organic farming and why it’s so important. George Szczepanski, Director, Production, Supply Chain & Environmental Policy at International Fresh Produce Association joins us at the end of the episode to talk about the association and why organic farming is important to the industry, the environment and the consumer.

Join us as we discuss:

• Why Grimmway Farms believes strongly in organic farming
• The challenges surrounding organic farming
• The importance of soil health and maintenance in organic farming

Some weeds produce 250,000 viable seeds per plant. When you’re an organic farmer caring for your soil and crops by hand, one weed can cause a huge problem!

So why do farmers go organic if it’s so difficult?

In the latest episode of Fresh Takes on Tech, Russel Hamlin, General Manager at Grimmway Farms, spoke about organic agriculture, the challenges of organic farming and why it’s so important. George Szczepanski, Director, Production, Supply Chain & Environmental Policy at International Fresh Produce Association also joined to talk about the association and why organic farming is important to the industry, the environment and the consumer.

We discussed:

• Why Grimmway Farms believes strongly in organic farming
• The challenges surrounding organic farming
• The importance of soil health and maintenance in organic farming

Starting in organic

Organic farming is notoriously difficult. Yet, for many, the extra challenge is more than worth it.

Grimmway farms is one such company who have successfully made the difficult transition from conventional to organic practices for much of their crops — though, like any others who have made the transition to organic, this was not without its hurdles.

With deep roots in conventional practices, Grimmway is the largest conventional carrot producer in the world — in fact, the amount of carrots they produce yearly could stretch to the moon and back six times!

So, it may seem strange that a company seeing such success with its conventional approach would want to make the transition.

But in their quest to grow the best produce on the planet, they realized that if they could overcome the initial challenges, they could better provide consumers with the kind of produce they’re clamoring for. Though, it was admittedly a struggle in the early days.

The first challenge the company had to contend with was the three-year transition time it takes to convert land from conventional to organic.

During this time, while ensuring that the soil was made suitable for organic use, they were unable to use the land to grow their staple carrot crop — an attempt Russel calls “a disaster” — meaning that they were losing yield and, in the short-term, profit.

Since the only organic crop they had to begin with were carrots, they struggled to properly perform crop rotation as they sought to reinvigorate the soil with organic fertilizers. This meant they were stuck rotating with fallow land.

The issue there is that while that land isn’t growing anything, it still requires maintenance, resources — such as labor to remove weeds — that could have been utilized elsewhere.
A worthwhile challenge
Even once the soil stabilized and they began to get the hang of organic growing methods, the company had to learn new techniques to maintain yields to keep the venture profitable.

There are three major, ongoing challenges Russel points to that any organic farm must contend with: labor, weeds and water.

Labor

For labor, labor is the biggest ongoing challenge in agriculture today in Russel’s opinion. The majority of Grimmways organic produce is hand- harvested. This means that, when there are weed issues in the field, they are pulled by hand.

There's a lot of hand labor involved in the production of organic vegetables. And the labor availability continues to be a challenge every year for most farmers.

Weeds

Weeds are a tremendous challenge in organic farming. Some weeds produce 250,000 viable seeds per plant — so even if you get rid of 95% of them, you still have a problem. And because weeds are pulled by hand, weeding issues and labor labor issues are connected.

Water

Everyone in the country has likely heard about the water issues in California — and they are a big deal. One of Grimmway’s biggest ongoing challenges in all of their farming operations has been water availability.

In certain areas and years, the cost of water can reach such high levels that they can’t justify growing crops in more arid regions. It’s a challenge Grimmway overcomes by spreading their growing operations — and, therefore, their risk — across multiple states.

The payoff

So, while all of this sounds like a headache, for Grimmway, it’s all worth it. Because, ultimately, once they’ve made the transition, the yields are comparable to those of conventional farming. Besides, in the end, they are providing consumers with the organic produce they demand.

And perhaps most importantly, Grimmway are feeding the people while also being good stewards of the land they are using to do so.

Organic is regenerative

In previous episodes, we’ve discussed the nuance between conventional, organic, vertical and regenerative farming.

But for Russel, he has a simple take on it — organic farming is regenerative farming.

One of the company’s goals is to ensure they make the best produce to feed the people as they can, while minimizing harm to the environment.

To that end, Russel contends that the organic practices the company utilizes in their operations — from the initial and ongoing efforts aimed at restoring soil health to avoiding use of harmful pesticides — are regenerative practices.

And while Russel thinks the regulations defining organic are sometimes a little too restrictive, ultimately, it’s another challenge he and everyone else at Grimmway are happy to put a little extra effort into overcoming if it means they can continue to provide the best produce to the most people.