CA: Federal Grant to Facilitate Rapid Growth of Organic Farming

SANTA CRUZ, California, September 8, 2004 (ENS) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has tapped the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) to lead a research program that aims to prepare the organic industry for rapid growth. Organic agriculture is predicted to grow to 10 to 20 percent of California cropland by 2024. The $571,000 grant will help bolster scientific knowledge about organic systems and to strengthen the Central Coast network of organic farmers and agricultural researchers. In collaboration with farmers, agroecology researchers at UCSC have pioneered organic production methods for strawberries and other important regional crops. This project will build on those successes and prepare the organic industry for continued expansion by developing baseline nutrient management tools and addressing stubborn challenges, such as soil pathogens and pest management. "Conventional farmers have decades worth of research to draw on, while organic growers have very little scientific data to rely on," said environmental studies professor Carol Shennan, director of the UCSC Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems and one of four UCSC leaders of the project. "Organic production is a complex system that integrates soil fertility, crop rotation, water management, and pest and disease control. It requires a […]

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