San Diego ag all the rage in coronavirus age

Loss of business due to mass closures of restaurants, schools and corporate cafeterias in response to COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders has small farms looking to collaborate as they try to adapt to the crisis by finding new markets and changing sales strategies, according to Ching Lee, an assistant editor of Ag Alert, published by the California Farm Bureau.

During a webinar last week aimed at helping farmers find solutions to market instability created by the pandemic, Evan Wiig of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers in Davis encouraged small farms to work together and aggregate their products, whether they’re working with farm stands, e-commerce sites, marketing co-ops or community-supported agriculture subscription boxes.

“I think everyone is swimming in confusion and uncertainty as to how long this is going to last, what are the long-term implications,” he said. “But what we are seeing … is this surge in direct selling.”

Farms, food hubs and other food businesses that have managed to shift to a CSA or food-box model “are seeing a huge amount of support,” said Ben Thomas, director of the CAFF farm-to-market program, adding that he anticipates demand for these services will continue to grow. Meal-kit deliveries also have expanded, along with demand for emergency food, he said, noting that organizations such as the Salvation Army have started delivery programs for meals and ingredient boxes.

Before COVID-19, CSA sales accounted for just 17 percent of the farm’s revenue, but the farm owners said they expect that to rise to 33 percent while wholesale and direct sales will drop from 50 percent to 42 percent and farmers market sales from 33 percent to 25 percent. They said they anticipate losing business from restaurants, caterers and events that use flowers, but they expect increased demand from farm stands, online grocers and nonprofit organizations. Future sales to grocers and bakeries remain uncertain, they said.

Wiig also encouraged farmers to be creative and build relationships with chefs, food bloggers and local influencers in the community who can help boost farm sales.

In an interview, Taylor Roschen, policy advocate for the California Farm Bureau Federation, said California allows both single- and multiple-farm CSAs, provided they are registered producers and grow what they sell. CSA boxes and deliveries must also be labeled with the origin of the farm or farms, she added.

San Diego County Farm Bureau resources for local produce, fruit and products

To stimulate direct farm-to-customer sales in its region, the San Diego County Farm Bureau has posted a list of nearly 80 farms, nurseries and wineries that offer direct sales. A listing is below.

Agriculture has declined during the last few years in San Diego County, but has represented the county’s fifth or sixth largest industry since 2000. San Diego has the 12th largest farm economy among counties in the nation. All this smack in the middle of a three million person urban area, and the nation’s sixth largest city.

Driving county agriculture were more than 6,500 small farms less than five acres in the early 2000s as well as a nursery industry with high value specialty crops. The county has ranked as high as first in the nation in the number of small farms and second in the nation in nursery crop value. in 2018, 69 percent of county farms were under 10 acres in size.

Te county ranks first in the nation for floriculture and sod value of sales and second in the nation for avocado acres. It also ranks first in the nation for largest number of USDA certified organic farms.

Overall, an average of $5,612 of value per acre at one time ranked the county as tops in California for agricultural value per acre. Over 12,300 workers were employed by county agricultural producers in 2018.

Then came coronavirus.

“Our farmers are adapting to an ever-evolving situation that we are all dealing with right now, so they are implementing a number of different creative ideas to get their produce to the market and get fresh, local food into the hands of our population,” said Hannah Gbeh, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau.

North County farmers were adapting rapidly to the new normal, out of the box and out of necessity. Some of the local food outreach involves online produce orders, door-to-door delivery, farm stands and other services.

The shutdown of the farmers markets proved an unexpected windfall for Oceanside farmer Luke Girling, who runs Cyclops Farms on a 2.5-acre organic farm in the Fire Mountain area, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.

Before the farmers markets closed, about half of Girling’s business was done on Saturday mornings from the farmstand at the foot of his property at 1448 Avocado Road and the other half at the Sunday farmers market in Leucadia.

Pivoting quickly, Girling opened his home food stand on Sunday mornings, as well, and he promoted the new hours on his Facebook page. Perhaps driven by the market closures and the dearth of fresh produce in supermarkets, hundreds of shoppers turned up last weekend at the stand, more than doubling his usual sales for the week.

Hunter Depolo, owner of Behneman Farm in Valley Center, said he quickly switched from selling nearly all his crops at farm stands, to delivering produce to customers’ doors. The boxes include a mix of greens such as kale, chard and spinach, with citrus, avocados, and herbs, said Depolo, who grows the produce at his 10-acre Valley Center farm without pesticides, herbicides or synthetic fertilizers.

“With the markets closed, I’ve been putting it online and going to people’s houses,” Depolo said. “We have actually have been making more, surprisingly, but it’s a whole new thing.”

Since 1929, four generations of the Yasukochi family have farmed produce in North County, said farm owner Donal Yasukochi. Until last week, they sold about 90 percent of the farm’s produce — strawberries, heirloom tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers — at farmers markets in San Diego, Orange and L.A. counties. When the markets closed, Yasukochi came up with the idea to beef up its produce box sales just for the weekend to clear out their overflowing walk-in cooler.

Then his daughter Brianne, the assistant women’s basketball coach at UC San Diego, posted on social media that the boxes were available for free delivery and sales skyrocketed. Overnight, they went from selling around 250 boxes a week to more than 500 boxes a day.

What follows is the Farm Bureau directory of San Diego County farmers and ranchers selling their products directly to consumers. To purchase products, please coordinate directly with the farm via the information provided below, as inventory may change on a daily basis.