October 2020 - 34

ORGANIC
Grounded grower
Phil Foster and his wife Katherine. Photo: San Benito Agricultural Land Trust/Lynne Nuñez
By Stephen Kloosterman
Associate Editor
Call him a grounded grower.
Phil Foster is committed - not only
to his customers and employees, and
not only to his business's success. He's
committed to the ground itself.
Although most organic growers
would profess some dedication to
healthy soil, he's dug a bit deeper,
getting heavily into composting,
elaborate cover crops and reducedtillage
agriculture. He said that
commitment is not only addressing
environmental sustainability but also
the very practical concerns of staying
in business.
Foster was the grower on a panel
of speakers last December at the
Organic Grower Summit in Monterey,
California, where Haley Baron of
the Organic Farming Research
Foundation (OFRF) organized a
session on reducing risk through soil
management practices.
" Be it drought, be it inclement
weather, be it pest cycles that are
changing - there is a lot going on in
the farm, and there's a lot of potential
risk, " Baron said in introducing the
speakers. " However, perhaps the
greatest risk of all is the loss of the
hardworking capital - your healthy,
fertile soil. And compaction, declining
soil organic matter, decreased
fertility, soil erosion are all silently
undermining production. "
The OFRF recently released a series
of publications on best practices
for reducing risks faced by organic
growers.
" We feel that soil erosion and
degradation is perhaps the greatest
threat of all, " Baron said. " And
we know while hail can destroy
the current crop and issues like
compaction or low fertility can be
corrected within a few years, it takes
nature some 500 years to replace an
inch of topsoil lost to wind or soil
erosion. "
Stability for survival
Foster, whose farm operation has
been organically certified for 30 years,
said he originally turned to organic
growing for economic reasons.
" In 1989 we experimented with
our first organic production, " he said.
" Five acres we experimented with. ...
The economics of it seemed like this
was a way to stay in business and this
certainly has sustained us well for a
number of years. "
The farm includes 95 acres in San
Juan Bautista and 200 acres on a
Santa Ana Ranch. Soils range from
sandy, silty loam to clay loam. The
growing operations include 5 acres of
hoop houses that help with seasonextending
and winter production and
a four-acre compost yard. The farm
grows 60 different types of vegetables
and tree fruit. For 20 years, Phil Foster
Ranches has marketed its produce
under its own brand, Pinnacle.
" We do some local marketing, "
Foster said. " Seventy-five percent
of what we grow is marketed within
100 miles of the farm. So, we do this
through farmers' markets, direct
delivery to stores, and working with a
couple of regional wholesalers. "
But it wasn't just the economic
reasons that drew him into organics.
" The other thing I was interested
in was the soil-building aspects of
organic farming: cover-cropping,
composting, (bio)diversity. "
Foster, who regularly has the soil
tested, said he's been able to up the
percentage of organic matter in his
soils by one percentage point over
the years. The San Juan Bautista
ranch currently is at 2-3% organic
Pinnacle's Phil Foster
committed to soil management
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October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2020