Jeff Huckaby expects the new Center for Organic Production and Research at Cal Poly to be a significant asset for the industry in the coming years, both through talent development and through research on key areas including weeding, soil health, fertility and automation.
Huckaby, the president of Grimmway Farms, which donated $5 million to launch the center, spoke at a Global Organic Produce Expo session Jan. 27 with Andy Thulin, dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, about the vision for the center.
Evaluating potential solutions being pitched to industry companies, from herbicides and fertilizers to mechanized weeders and harvesters, is one example of how Cal Poly can contribute to the industry. The university uses teams of students from different disciplines to conduct quick trials to evaluate new products.
Cal Poly can then share with the industry which solutions have the most potential, and then companies can choose to test on a larger scale as they are interested, Thulin said.
Huckaby described the price gap between organic and conventional as the main barrier to the continuing growth of the segment. Identifying and implementing more cost-effective products and processes to use could go a long way toward closing that gap.
“Conventional fertilizers out there are fairly inexpensive and they work very quickly, so you get a quick fix, you’re able to address any issues. Organic fertilizers, not so much,” Huckaby said. “You’re building for tomorrow, so you’re always having to stay one step ahead, and the costs per unit have a tendency to be significantly higher or somewhat higher, so that gap, if we reduce that, and we figure out better, more efficient fertilizers that are out there, and working with Andy’s group to test them and find out which one has the best bang for their buck, and how do we get the most reaction with each particular fertilizer, that’s going to go a long ways in helping organic as far as reducing the costs that are out there.”
Huckaby used the issue of weed control as another example. Spraying a typical herbicide to clean up a field might cost $40 an acre, where weeding could cost $1,000-$3,000 an acre in carrots, where there are 100 plants per square foot.
“Hard (enough) to get your fingers in between there, let alone mechanization, but there’s new technologies out there, from lasers to mechanical,” Huckaby said. “There are so many opportunities, but it would be great to have the university vet them first and go through and have them really work on them in partnership with industry.”
The Cal Poly strawberry center, also a collaboration between academia and industry, will serve as a model for the new organic center.
Thulin said the university plans to hire a director for the new center in the next six months.
“The people that are sitting on the advisory committee here will be from industry,” Thulin said. “There will be some university people, but it will be heavily from government and private industry and how we try to meet these needs for research, applied research, and workforce.”
