Farming

The mechanization of farming, which has been chugging along for about 200 years, continues in its slow and irregular way. A few crops -- blueberries, olives, pomegranates -- have recently been added to the list of those that can be harvested by a machine instead of by human hand. A few tractors have been rigged with steering that is guided by satellites. But for the most part, the technological revolution that has affected so many other professions has bypassed farming. This is not because there aren't clever people working on farming technology or because farmers are too conservative to adopt new devices.

SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Interior Department violated federal law by failing to conduct an environmental review before ordering a Northern California oyster farmer to shutter his operation, attorneys for the farmer told a federal appeals court panel here Tuesday. In a case that has become a cause celebre across the political spectrum, oysterman Kevin Lunny had been ordered to close the farm late last year when his lease to operate within Point Reyes National Seashore expired. Closing Lunny's Drakes Bay Oyster Co. would make way for the first marine wilderness area on the West Coast at Drakes Estero, an environmentally sensitive area home to a large population of harbor seals.

One of the more pleasing developments of the last decade has been the long-overdue beginning of a national conversation about food -- not just the arcane techniques used to prepare it and the luxurious restaurants in which it is served, but, much more important, how it is grown and produced. The only problem is that so far it hasn't been much of a conversation. Instead, what we have are two armed camps deeply suspicious of one another shouting past each other (sound familiar?). On the one side, the hard-line aggies seem convinced that a bunch of know-nothing urbanites want to send them back to Stone Age farming techniques.

Federal wildlife officials took the unprecedented step Friday of telling private companies that they will not be prosecuted for inadvertently harassing or even killing endangered California condors. In a decision swiftly condemned by conservationists and wildlife advocates, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said operators of Terra-Gen Power's wind farm in the Tehachapi Mountains will not be prosecuted if their turbines accidentally kill a condor during the expected 30-year life span of the project.

After Colin Archipley and his wife sold their tiny Venice house and bought 2 acres of land in Escondido in 2005, he started caring for the 200 avocado trees on the land just because they were there. That turned out to be a catalyst for a new life for the Iraq war veteran. After leaving the Marines in 2006, Archipley, 29, had a vision of replicating the teamwork and proficiency of his military colleagues. He found that business: Archi's Acres now grows herbs and greens — and avocadoes — on 6 acres, some of which he owns and some of which he rents, selling at farmers markets and to Whole Foods and other retailers.

Yoshikatsu Mochida strolls between the long, green rows of his field, pausing occasionally to inspect the mustard spinach and garland chrysanthemums that have grown shin-high. They are ready to be harvested. But the 66-year-old Japanese farmer won't pick them. That's because the field is his, but the crops aren't. For more than a year, Mochida has divided some of his farmland on the outskirts of Yokohama into 8 feet by 40 feet plots, renting 70 of them to urbanites who come once a week to tend their crops.

Bouncing down a dirt road, past emerald fields thick with sweet potato plants, farmer Robert Garcia hunched over the steering wheel of his pickup truck and grinned with glee. It's the beginning of harvest season and, once again, his bounty of orange- and yellow-fleshed roots is looking promising. "You used to see cotton fields and grapevines out here," said Garcia, 54, whose family grows and packs sweet potatoes out of their Central California farm operations. "Now the talk is sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes, how can I get more sweet potatoes?"

Re "Pesticides and Public Health," letters, March 7. I find myself thoroughly confused. People vote for Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) laws to preserve open space and farmland, then want to shut down the agriculture business to "protect" themselves from farming, because farmers use pesticides too close to residential communities. Non-farmers know pesticides are unnecessary because they have read papers on organic farming and are now experts in agriculture. I'm sure farming is difficult enough considering the vagaries of weather, irrigation concerns, maintaining arable soil (plus a host of other things to which I plead ignorance)

Analyzing DNA from four ancient skeletons and comparing it with thousands of genetic samples from living humans, a group of Scandinavian scientists reported that agriculture initially spread through Europe because farmers expanded their territory northward, not because the more primitive foragers already living there adopted it on their own. The genetic profiles of three Neolithic hunter-gatherers and one farmer who lived in the same region of...

The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday proposed a bold plan that aims to make farming less harmful to the environment by halving the use of pesticides and insecticides within 10 years. Agriculture Minister Gerrit Braks said he wanted to steer Dutch farming away from the use of chemical fertilizers toward organic, ecologically friendly techniques. He said the use of some chemicals will be taxed, and the more toxic ones will be banned. The government plans to double spending on ecologically safe agriculture to $215 million a year in the next five years.

Traditionally, working folk dreamed of retiring to California to grow citrus, or more recently wine grapes, but these days the second career crop of choice appears to be artisanal olive oil. Fresh, local oil is all the rage; universities and industry groups help guide aspiring growers, and once their groves start bearing, many sell at farmers markets, where they earn premium prices and enjoy schmoozing with shoppers. Mark Mooring of Buon Gusto Farms followed an unusual version of this path, from starting the Los Angeles Police Department K-9 Platoon to growing olives in Ventura, where he produces richly flavored, award-winning oils.

The Angels' training room is so crowded the team sent shortstop Erick Aybar and relievers Kevin Jepsen and Ryan Madson to its extended spring-training facility in Arizona on Wednesday to continue rehabbing the injuries that put them on the disabled list. The Angels have seven players on the DL and several active players, including Albert Pujols , who require daily treatment for nagging injuries. That has taxed the medical staff so much that the team decided some players might benefit from more focused attention in minor league camp.

Expand or die. This ominous motto of economic imperialism courses throughout the film "At Any Price," set against the imperiled world of modern-day family farming. Director Ramin Bahrani, who co-wrote the screenplay with Hallie Elizabeth Newton, spent six months in Iowa living among farmers as the duo spoke to people about the issues facing their lives and businesses. The film grapples with enduring issues of generational conflict and transition as well as the perennial drama of success and failure in America.

For many years, Maggie's Farm, based in Agoura Hills, has sold top-quality salad greens and herbs exclusively at farmers markets. Kenter Canyon Farms offers a wider range of similar produce, at a few farmers markets, but mostly wholesale and on a much larger scale. Many shoppers know that the two farms are owned by members of the same family, but few realize that they offer two versions, boutique and commercial, of production that now comes mostly from the same land. On a recent tour of Kenter's Ventura County grounds, the owner of Maggie's, Nate Peitso, who is the son and stepson of the owners of Kenter, showed off scores of immaculately tended hoop houses packed with rows of herbs such as thyme, tarragon and mint.

A bill that would require prisons, schools and other public institutions to give preference to California farm products handily cleared a committee Wednesday. The Choose California Act, sponsored by Assemblyman Chris Holden (D-Pasadena), cleared the Assembly Agriculture Committee on a 7-0 vote. The proposed law, AB 199 , would mandate public institutions to buy California agriculture products if the price is within 5% of the lowest out-of-state competitor. Quiz: How much do you know about California's economy?

  For anyone who loves a leaner, more elegant style of Chardonnay, this is the one. Liquid Farm proprietors Nikki and Jeff Nelson are going for Chardonnay with less oak influence and lower alcohol. Bingo. That's a recipe for a food-friendly wine, and with the help of winemakers Brandon Sparks-Gillis and John Dragonette of Dragonette Cellars, they're making this terrific Chardonnay from Santa Rita Hills grapes. I love its minerality, the sharp, fresh scent of citrus and, well, grape that comes through loud and clear.

State Food and Agriculture Director Clare Berryhill, a charter member of Gov. George Deukmejian's Cabinet and an aggressive promoter of California farm exports, resigned Tuesday, effective May 22. Deukmejian, who made the announcement in a prepared statement released by his office, did not name a successor to the 61-year-old Berryhill, a rough-hewn grower and former state legislator known for his candor.

WASHINGTON - Senators writing a landmark immigration bill broke a logjam between farmworker unions and growers Thursday, reaching a tentative agreement on future agricultural visas and pay scales for foreign farmworkers, according to people familiar with the negotiations. Labor unions and agricultural industry leaders had been stuck for three weeks on how to legally bring foreign labor into the United States to pick crops and tend livestock at competitive wages. The issue, which is critical to California and other major farming states, became a major stumbling block in bipartisan efforts to craft a comprehensive immigration bill.

Developments continue apace in the saga of the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. and its legal battle with the federal government. The Department of the Interior last week filed its brief ahead of the May 14 case before the U.S. 9 th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the oyster farm in the Point Reyes National Seashore has been fairly treated by the National Park Service and it's time for the operator to honor its agreement. The brief read, in part, “After forty years, it is not inequitable - rather, it is the essence of fairness - for the United States finally to gain control over the land that it purchased, enabling the American people to enjoy wilderness in Drakes Estero.” Owner Kevin Lunny took over a lease within the park that expired last November and has been fighting since then to continue the business.