Phil Foster: Organic No Till Experiments On California Veg Farm

#121:  Dave Chapman spends an afternoon touring Pinnacle Organics with California vegetable farmer Phil Foster who explains the successes, failures, and still-unknown results of the organic no-till agriculture trials taking place on his farm. Pinnacle, along with a handful of other well-known CA veg farms, has been experimenting with no-till practices under the guidance of Chico State and UC Davis.
 
Phil Foster grows 60+ crops in northern California along with his wife Katherine and a large farm crew at Pinnacle Organics. They supply a variety of retail stores and both regional and national wholesale distributors, and also run a popular on-farm store  every Saturday:

https://www.pinnacleorganic.com/

To watch a video version of this podcast with access to the full transcript and links relevant to our conversation, please visit:

https://www.realorganicproject.org/phil-foster-organic-no-till-california-veg-farm-episode-one-hundred-twenty-one

The Real Organic Podcast is hosted by Dave Chapman and Linley Dixon, engineered by Brandon StCyr, and edited and produced by Jenny Prince.

The Real Organic Project is a farmer-led movement working towards certifying 1,000 farms across the United States this year. Our add-on food label distinguishes soil-grown fruits and vegetables from hydroponically-raised produce, and pasture-raised meat, milk, and eggs from products harvested from animals in horrific confinement (CAFOs - confined animal feeding operations).

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We believe that the organic standards, with their focus on soil health, biodiversity, and animal welfare were written as they should be, but that the current lack of enforcement of those standards is jeopardizing the ability for small farms who adhere to the law to stay in business. The lack of enforcement is also jeopardizing the overall health of the customers who support the organic movement; customers who are not getting what they pay for at market but still paying a premium price. And the lack of enforcement is jeopardizing the very cycles (water, air, nutrients) that Earth relies upon to provide us all with a place to live, by pushing extractive, chemical agriculture to the forefront.

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