Grown naturally

Many buyers of organic food do so because they think it confers greater health benefits and is a superior way to grow food.

They argue that it has higher nutritional value, is better for the soil and is more sustainable long-term, since it uses no artificial pesticides or fertilizers.

But for many of Kings County's approximately 20 organic producers, going organic was more about economic survival than anything else.

Vernon Peterson, a fourth-generation farmer who tends 150 acres of fruit near Kingsburg, embodies some of the complexities of the organic farming movement.

Weeds -- a common sight on organic farms because they don't use herbicides -- grow in the space between the rows of trees on his quiet farm near a bend of the Kings River.

Nearby, organically-fed chickens provide the fertilizer for the trees, which produce plums, nectarines, apricots, and a few persimmons.

The fruit is boxed in Peterson's packing shed, which also packs organic and conventionally-grown fruit for some three dozen of his neighbors.

Peterson doesn't shy away from his argument that "apples to apples," organic food is healthier.

But he speaks candidly about the limitations that the idealistic organic consumer might not be aware of.

His 150 acres produce organic food that goes to highly-educated, wealthier consumers around California in what turns out to be a small -- and lucrative -- percentage of the U.S. market.

Though the market for organic products has been increasing every year, organic produce occupies a tiny percentage of the total amount of food grown in the U.S. -- 2 percent, by Peterson's reckoning.

And according to many local organic producers, conventional agriculture is here to stay.

"If everybody goes organic, and there's a problem, say a locust goes into your corn, there's nothing you can do," said Paul Muradian, who farms 200 acres of fruit between Selma and Laton.

What Muradian meant is that a conventional farmer can spray insecticides to save the crop and get most of it to market in such a situation, whereas an organic farmer could lose the whole thing.

Because of the limitations on what he can and cannot apply to his organic crop, Peterson said, he on average loses 25 percent of it every year.

So it's the premium price that keeps him in business. Conventional agriculture can produce food cheaper.

Sometimes too cheap for smaller producers like Peterson.

Peterson used to do conventional agriculture up until five years ago, when he went organic. He said he was having a tough time making a living on his small acreage in a market of relentlessly declining prices.

Now, with organic fruit fetching higher prices, he can survive on farming alone, whereas many of his neighbors have sold off acreage and taken other jobs to survive.

Peterson said he's worked to convince the farmers around him -- ranging from 20 acres to a couple hundred acres -- to go organic as well.

"Here's an opportunity where you can stay in business. But it takes a lot of courage," he said.

Richard Olson, who has about 600 acres of organic fruit trees in Kings County, said his multi-generational family farm has been all organic since its inception in 1889.

"I don't like to ingest all the pesticides, mostly from a personal point of view," Olson said.

But Olson acknowledged that he probably couldn't do it without the higher prices that organics sell for.

Part of the reason for the higher price of organic produce is the inherent problems of growing it and getting it to market.

"There's probably not enough manure around to fertilize those fields with organic fertilizer anyway," said Ben Nydam, a crop consultant in Hanford who consults with both organic and conventional clients.

Commercially grown food is easier to ship, keeps longer, is easier to keep clean and has less issues with e-coli and other bacteria, Nydam said.

Nydam said he wanted to counter the perception in the organic movement that conventional farming is "a bad thing."

"The perception I don't want to project is that I'm against organic," Nydam said.

Paul Muradian, who combines conventional and organic growing, can see both sides of the coin.

"In the conventional side, people were going broke, so we felt the only way to survive was to get into the organic," he said.

There are "pluses and minuses" to organic farming, he said.

With conventional farming, you have known chemicals that control bugs, whereas with organic methods, you have to get creative with pest control methods, he said.

Muradian said that he sometimes uses pheromones and natural predators to control unwanted bugs.

But it has to be done at exactly the right time, or it doesn't work.

And if everybody went organic, you've have to have a lot more land in production to get the same amount of food to market that conventional agriculture does, he added.

"Essentially, everybody would have their own garden," he said.

As for the nutritional value of organic food, Muradian said that eating it, "you'd probably have a few more phyto-nutrients in your body."

"I would think that you are seeing more people going to organic, and I think it's just because of that," he said.

But he's not about to abandon his conventional acreage for one simple reason: Fungus infections.

In conventional farming, you spray a fungicide on the peaches to take care of the problem.

In organic farming, you might lose it all.

"Like I said, one rain event, and your whole year's gone, so there's no bonus to that," he said.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2432

(June 21, 2008)