My Farm Tour Experience in the San Joaquin Valley

Thank you to The Alliance For Food and Farming for sponsoring this post and my trip. All the opinions and thoughts presented are my own.

Where Does Our Food Come From?

As a young dietitian, I started my career in school and community nutrition. I worked for a community-based nonprofit that had Pre-k – 8th grade and I was the district’s Child Nutrition Manager. One of my favorite things to do in that job was visit the school during lunch. I’d step into the raucous cafeteria, fill my red lunch tray with the day’s special and bounce from table to table chatting with kids about food. One of my go-to questions was, “do you know where your food comes from?” Sometimes I would hear a seed or the ground. Other times I’d get an enthusiastic “from the store!” From that point I’ve loved educating on how our food gets to our plates and learning from the farmers who feed the world.

This fall, I was invited to join the Alliance for Food and Farming’s Safe Fruit and Veggies Tour in the San Joaquin Valley, not too far from my new home in Oakland. San Joaquin is the most productive agricultural region in the state with TONS of crop diversity so needless to say I jumped at the opportunity! When the day came, I packed my bags, hopped in a Prius, and took the 3-hour drive to Visalia, California. It was amazing to see the more densely populated East Bay transform to vast and open farm lands. I passed cascading rows of olives, oranges, table grapes, wine grapes, and almonds just on the drive up. The next two days I would be immersed in conversations around farming, food safety, and fruit and vegetable consumption with farmers, scientists and fellow dietitians.

Getting Started at Porterville Citrus

Day one of the farm tour started at Porterville Citrus. Like many farms, Porterville Citrus started out as a family founded farm, but has since transitioned to be an employee-owned cooperative. I found this fascinating as the majority of farmworkers are Latinx – a strong majority coming from Mexico. Many are also part of the immigrant workforce. They work hard to ensure food makes it from the farm to our plates. Throughout the two days I sought to understand not only how farmers ensure the produce is safe, but also how farms create safe and equitable working environments and opportunities for professional growth for these critical workers.

*Marina Abitia shares about her role at Porterville Citrus alongside General Manager, Kenny Wileman*

Porterville Citrus gave examples of this throughout the tour. One story came from Marina Abitia, who is the Regulatory Compliance - Food Safety & Organics Officer at Porterville Citrus. Her family has over 20 years of experience in the agriculture industry, from harvesting to machine operating. Marina finished school and jumped into the workforce ready to embark on a journey as a first-generation farmer! The average American farmer is 57.5 years old, male and 95.4% of all farmers in the US are white. As a Latina, Marina is providing some much-needed representation in agriculture.

Porterville Citrus produces a wide variety of oranges (navels, blood oranges, cara caras, Valencia, gold nuggets, mandarins, minneolas, satsumas) as well as lemons, Meyer lemons, star ruby grapefruit and pummelos. They do conventional and organic farming. As we watched the oranges journey from farm to store-ready boxes one thing became very clear, farmers care a great deal about the safety of the produce. Whole teams are dedicated to ensuring the safety, and quality assurance of the product and that’s no small feat. This facility alone produces 1.6 million pounds of citrus a season. The oranges that day moved from the conveyer belt to start the first stage of their multi hour sanitation process. A wash operator checks the sanitation tank hourly to ensure the water is the right mixture for proper sanitation. We watched as an already sanitized group of oranges tumbled, rolled, and zipped through the manufacturing process; drying, sizing, grading, sorting and then packing.

Innovation and Technology at HMC Farms

*HMC Farms greets the group with grape salsa*

We grabbed a box of oranges for the road then hopped back on the bus. Off to HMC Farms Main Office. At this location, stained glass windows of weaving grapevines sandwiched the large front door. Innovative is one word I’d use to describe this farm. From my perspective, this was thanks to the family members who steer the strategy and operations of the farm. Our main guide was Chelsea Ketelson, daughter to HMC founder Harold McClarty. She greeted us with a sample of fresh grape salsa and ushered us into a conference room to meet the rest of the farming team. This included Harold, Chelsea’s husband Drew Ketelson and her brother Jon McClarty. All four, along with sister-in-law Sarah McClarty, think about how to innovate farming practices especially through technology. Collectively, they are younger than the average farmer and demonstrate the increasing gender diversity that the agriculture space is seeing. According to the USDA, the number of female farming producers has increased nearly 27 percent from 2012 - 2017. In fact, HMC created a women’s professional development group which consists of all full time female employees throughout the organization.

During the tour, the HMC family talked about the various ways they think about utilizing technology in farming and that there’s often a misconception that technology is going to take jobs away. That’s not the case here. Technology makes farm jobs less strenuous and creates more efficient, safe, and comfortable farming practices for staff. One way technology plays a role at HMC is through high density planting. Typically, the branches of stone fruit trees grow out wide. With high density planting trees are trimmed so that they grow vertically. This method originated in South America and has not yet caught on across the San Joaquin Valley. In some sense, HMC is taking a risk trying something new, but it’s paying off. They are seeing increased efficiency, a product that gets better sunlight, better quality produce, and produce that’s easier for staff to harvest. Other fascinating ways technology and agriculture science is leveraged at HMC farms is through the use of:

Autonomous carts: alleviating the need for farm workers to pull heavy carts through the rows
Pago – an app that allows for quick and easy payment for farm staff
Solar fields to increase energy efficiency - HMC is one of the largest adopters of solar power in the industry
Water sensors and application-controlled irrigation – to help utilize water more efficiently especially while in a drought
Autonomous drone harvesting – HMC is the first drone harvester in California

The HMC farms family believes that this blend of farming and technology is one way to keep people interested in farming for the next generation. In addition to improved working conditions through technology, farm staff are also provided access to a free health clinic and have the opportunity to professionally develop and learn about agriculture technology.

Debunking the Dirty Dozen

*HMC Farms Staff Inspect Quality of Freshly Harvested Peaches*

From the warehouse we head to the farm where Drew Ketelson debunked the myth of the dirty dozen. You’ve probably heard of the dirty dozen, it’s a list of 12 foods that some recommend you buy organic instead of conventional. Research has shown that substituting organic fruit and vegetables for conventional produce does not result in a decrease in risk because residues are already so very low on conventional produce. Drew noted that California has the most pesticide and fungicide laws anywhere. It’s inefficient and expensive for farmers to spray their entire crop and with today’s technology they don’t have to. Instead, they utilize an integrated pest management system (IPM) to detect and apply as needed. Messaging like the dirty dozen can do more harm than good. Research shows that fear-based messaging may discourage purchasing of produce altogether. Currently only 1 in 10 Americans eat enough fruits and vegetables which is related to a whole host of social, environmental and behavioral reasons. However, there is a need to decrease fear based messaging and increase messages that encourage consumption.

The last stop of the day was at the Family Tree Farms Research Center- The Most Flavorful Fruit in the World. How can I explain my experience? In a word, whimsical. It’s the type of place I wish I could’ve taken my students from the school nutrition days to, especially the ones who thought they didn’t like fruits and veggies. We taste tested a variety of hybrid fruits like plumcots - a combination of a plum and an apricot with more plum flavor, and apriums (a combination of plum and apricot with more apricot flavor). We also enjoyed more well known and equally delicious nectarines, peaches, blueberries, pears, and apples. We each had an opportunity to rank our 3 favorite varieties with a gold, silver, and bronze coin. It was the perfect dietitian olympic game.

A Great Day for Grapes

*Deanna Belleny Lewis & Lauren Harris-Pincus in the Jasmine Farms vineyards*

Day 2 was largely focused on table grapes. As one of my top 3 favorite fruits I was hardly disappointed. Grapes from California dietitian, Courtney Romano kicked off the day with some great grape education. On top of being delicious grapes support the health of your heart, brain, colon skin, immune system and healthy aging. Fun fact: grapes are also a natural source of melatonin, a compound that helps regulate sleep cycles. After breakfast we were off to Jasmine Farms where we were greeted by Jon Zaninovich , a third generation farmer and President of Jasmine Farms. Jon shared the history of the farm and the story of his family who came from Croatia to California. We pulled into one row and the team was mid harvest, carefully packing up grapes eyeing the bunches for consistency.

Table grapes are amazing in that they grow their own sort of armor right on their skin called the bloom. If you’ve ever noticed a cloudy silvery coating that grapes have on them, that’s the bloom. It’s a natural protectant that keeps bacteria away. Jon plucked a bunch off the vine dusting the bloom off to show us the difference. Farmers do an impressive job at keeping up with the different and new varieties that consumers want. There are over 80 varieties of grapes including summer crunch, green seedless grapes, and sweet celebration to name a few we tried that day.

Jon Zaninovich describes the bloom on grapes

We took a break from the tours to enjoy lunch at the warehouse. There we met more farmers from the area, many of which are members of the California Fresh Fruit Association. This nonprofit group prioritizes collaboration. Farmers, oftentimes competitors, sit around the table and help one another solve problems. From sustainability, to workforce shortages, to drought and water issues, these farmers think about the collective interest of the farming community. One farmer described it in this way, “Of course you have your own business interest but you also have a responsibility to all the growers in your district. You take off the company hat and think about what’s best for the industry as a whole”.

Thank A Farmer

*Dietitian Attendees of the 2022 Safe Fruits and Veggies Farm Tour*

We finished off our farm tour experience at the McKeller Family Farms with a quintessential tractor ride and a beautiful dinner in the grove . Here they also grew oranges, including navel oranges, mandarins (which you’ve seen in the store as halos) and Valencia (which typically become orange juice). When you think of where oranges are grown you may think of Florida first. Unfortunately, Florida orange trees have been ravaged by a pest called the Asian citrus psyllid. This causes a fatal disease commonly referred to as HLB and has decimated Florida’s orange production. California farmers has been providing a significant number of oranges nationwide while doing all they can to prevent the pest from infiltrating their farms. There is currently no cure and the only way to eliminate it is by completely destroying the trees. Surveillance, integrate pest management, technology, and collaboration are just a few ways the San Joaquin region is working to prevent a similar fate.

The Asian citrus psyllid are only 3mm long. When I think about how something so small can wipe out a substantial amount of farmland, and how people depend on that farmland for food security I appreciate farmers and farm workers even more. Their job is one of the hardest. They have to balance unpredictable external forces like heat, rain, ice, pest along with shifting policies, strict regulations, and workforce concerns. This can be even more challenging for smaller farmers who may not have the same resources as larger ones. I’ve gained so much from this trip; an increased appreciation for farmers, a responsibility to get to know and support those in my area and to continue to educate on the role of farmers in providing safe and nutritious foods. Thank you, farmers!

Key Takeaways and Fun Facts

Fun Facts

California produces nearly half of the U.S grown fruits, nuts and vegetables.
California is the stone fruit state growing 70% of fresh peaches (sorry Georgia) and 95% of other stone fruit (i.e. peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines)

99% of table grapes grown in the US are grown in California (San Joaquin and Coachella Valley)
Some orange trees can bear good fruit for over 100 years.
The lemonade made at Chick-fil-a is from lemons grown in California - so next time you have an Arnold Palmer with your chicken sandwich thank a California farmer.

Key Takeaways

Get to know and support your local farmer. They ensure you have safe, delicious food day after day.
The dirty dozen is a myth. If your reason for buying organic was to avoid the effect of pesticides you can rest assured that the conventional variety is safe, so save your coins!
- You can try out the Safe Fruits and Veggies pesticide residue calculator to see how low pesticides really are in your produce
Fresh fruits and vegetables are packed with health promoting nutrients like fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. They help fight diseases and support overall health.