by Sally Colby

ruit and vegetable growersdo their best to incorporatesustainable methods in theiroperations, but Stan and JoanGeel have made an extra effortto ensure the viability of theirland in the future.

Prior to purchasing acreagein Camino, CA, Stan Geel wasa neurochemistry researcherat U.C. Davis medical schooland Joan was a physical edu-cation teacher and gymnasticcoach. They both wanted toget back to what Stan hadalready done earlier in his life— farming. When the Geelslocated a piece of propertyowned by a long-time applegrower, they took the opportu-nity to get back to what theyloved.

“I always wanted to get backto agriculture,” said Geel,adding that the property in theSierra foothills included a

stand of Red Delicious appletrees. “This was a good oppor-tunity, but little did I knowthat there was so much workin growing apples.”

Geel says that from the timethey acquired their property,their goal was to be as conser-vative as possible in theirapproach, and follow sustain-able methods where possible.They weren’t necessarily aim-ing for organic production,which Geel supports but saysis surrounded by myths andmisunderstandings. He notedthe recent Stanford Universitystudy revealing that conven-tionally produced fruits andvegetables are equally nutri-tious to those produced underorganic methods.

The Geels removed much ofthe existing orchard andestablished Fuji, Cameo,Mutsu, Granny Smith, Galaand Golden Delicious in orderto provide a selection of popu-

lar fresh eating apples thatripen throughout the season.New apple trees are planted800 to 1,00 trees/ acre, with5’ between trees and 8’ to 12’between rows. Geel selecteddwarfing, disease-resistantrootstock to minimize the useof chemicals. Mating disrup-tion is one of the IPM practicesin the orchard, and Geel saysthat it has been highly effec-tive. The dwarf trees are moresuitable and safer for pick-your-own.

“People really love Fugi,Mutsu and Cameo,” said Geel.“The apples are mostly pick-your-own, but we also sellabout eight to ten tons forretail markets.” PYO cus-tomers are provided with a bagthat holds a certain amount ofapples, and are directed to theorchard to pick. Geel, whoseaim is to keep the operationfriendly and low-key, says thatmany who come to SunMountain make it a familyaffair, and will bring a picniclunch and take time to enjoythe surroundings.

At the same time the newapple varieties were planted,the Geels established severalacres of blueberries. “The pHhas to be low, between 4.55and 5.0,” said Geel. “But if youhave the right site, soil andorganic matter, they’re prettystraightforward.” Geel saysthat a lot of backyard blueber-ry growers come to him withquestions about growing, andsays that failure is usually dueto pH issues.

“We have early varieties,”said Geel as he talked aboutthe pick-your-own blueberryseason at Sun Mountain.“Before the blueberries comedown from Oregon, which is abig blueberry-growing area,we have them here. We cansell them at a premium price.”Blueberry varieties includeDuke, Reka, Early Blue,Patriot and Spartan; all earlyvarieties that are ready inearly to mid-June. Geel’s mainchallenge in blueberry growingis birds. “We use loudspeakerswith distress calls, but robinswill sit right on top of them, flydown and eat one blueberry ata time,” he said. “Fortunately,the large bird flocks (starlings)don’t come until later.”

In addition to apples andblueberries, the Geels havedevoted several acres to winegrapes. They’re currentlygrowing Malbec, an

Argentinean grape, and Syrah.The 15 tons harvested eachyear are sold to two localwineries. Customers who visitSun Mountain Farm forapples can also pick their ownpumpkins. Geel noted thatmany Sun Mountain Farmcustomers come fromSacramento, which is about40 miles away, and also fromSan Francisco and parts ofNevada.

Sun Mountain Farm is certi-fied by the Fish-FriendlyProgram, a component of theCalifornia Land StewardshipInstitute. For certification, theGeels maintain certain sus-tainable practices throughtheir conservation plan, andthe farm undergoes routineinspections. The farm is alsocertified by the CaliforniaSustainable WinegrowingProgram, which helps winegrape growers develop a planthat includes sustainablepractices while comparingtheir operating practices to astandard. “We attend theirworkshops and follow bestpractices for sustainable grow-ing,” said Geel.

Like other growers whoinvite the public to theirfarms, Geel says that he isconstantly amazed at the con-sumers’ questions, and appre-ciates the opportunity toanswer those questions. Onecommon topic that’s often

brought up by visitors to SunMountain Farm is aboutorganic production. “Peopleare misled — some people calltheir operation organic butthey aren’t certified organic,”said Geel. “I’d love to go organ-ic but it’s almost impossible.”Instead, he explains that SunMountain Farm uses bestmanagement practices to min-imize the use of chemicals. “Ienjoy educating the public,”said Geel. “People shouldknow where their food comesfrom and what it takes togrow. It’s an enormousamount of work, especially ifyou go by sustainable prac-tices.”

Geel serves on his county’sFarm Bureau board of direc-tors, working on issuesincluding Ag in the Classroom,water rights and usage, foodlabeling and land develop-ment. He also serves on theApple Hill Growers board ofdirectors. Apple Hill is a pro-gressive ranch marketingeffort designed to help growersin the area work cooperativelyto market local products. Geelcredits the association fordrawing customers to thearea.

“It’s an exciting time in agri-culture,” said Geel. “Ag isbooming.”

Visit Sun Mountain Farmonline at www.sunmountain-farm.com

Growing fruit sustainably at Sun Mountain Farm

Sun Mountain Farm is a certified fish-friendly farm, which means that theGeels have taken extra measures torestore and enhance fish and wildlifehabitat while improving water quality.

Stan and Joan Geel’s Sun Mountain Farm in the Sierrafoothills is in the heart of Apple Hill Grower Farms. TheGeels grow apples, blueberries and wine grapes.

Photos courtesy of Sun Mountain Farm

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by Emily Enger

Immigration & E-verify

he picture of agriculturein the minds of mainstreamAmerica tends to be a dichoto-my of either sustainable fami-ly farms with happy four-year-olds in overalls or big mecha-nized industries with 10-pluscombines in every field, all runby computers with GPS sys-tems. Often forgotten is thefact that most farms fall inbetween those stereotypes.Because of this, entire sec-tions of the agriculture indus-try are ignored by public poli-cy. These are most often thefarms that are labor-intensive:the fruit and vegetable grow-ers of America. If your cropcannot handle the beating of amachine and your yield ismore than you and your fami-ly can take in each harvest, itis important to understandwhat your legal options arewhen hiring a workforce.Policy changes are on the hori-zon and no farmer needs to bepenalized simply because hedid not understand.

Most of America’s agricul-tural workforce is foreign-born. Currently, of 1.5 millionseasonal agriculture workersin the U.S., the governmentestimates that 50 percent areundocumented or falsely doc-

umented. Frank Gasperini,Executive Vice President of theNational Council ofAgriculture Employers(NCAE), feels that the govern-ment’s number is modest andthe reality is closer to 75 per-cent. This poses a very seriousproblem for farmers whenmost responses to their adver-tisements are people who,based on illegal status, cannotbe hired. With the increasedcry of “penalize employers”being heard in the debate ofimmigration reform, farmersneed to protect themselves.But how can you know if youremployee is handing you alegal versus illegal document?

The program designed tohelp employers with this is awebsite database known as E-verify. According to its web-site, “E-Verify works by com-paring the informationemployees provide on theEmployment EligibilityVerification form (Form I-9)against millions of governmentrecords.” In theory, employersshould be able to enter detailsfrom their employees’ I-9forms and have the systemrespond with whether or notthat employee is eligible foremployment.

Intended to be an easy, freeonline service, E-verify insteadhad so many complicationsthat it was temporarily shut

down. Its audit in 2008 quotedthe site’s errors as havingapproximately 70,500 innacu-racies from April to June ofthat year. Sometimes the sitedid not recognized legal statusit should have and other timesit did not catch illegal status.Another concern of E-verifyhas been the infringement ofpersonal privacy and theguilty-until-proven-innocentmindset it espouses. But thegovernment continues to beoptimistic about the program.Kerry Scott, an H-2 Specialistwith masLabor, doesn’t sharethat optimism. “They saythey’ve fixed the problems,”admits a skeptical Scott.“They’re looking to re-intro-duce it.”

Scott calls E-verify a “train-wreck.” He has witnessed E-verify strip farmers of theiragricultural workforce only toleave crops rotting in thefields. Farmers are left watch-ing their employees — many ofwhom are friends — flee gov-ernment agents, and afterthat, the farmer gets penalizedeven though he was under theimpression that his workforcewas legal — had even beenassured so by other branchesof the government.

If E-verify is renewed with-out reform measures taken toprotect the agricultural work-force, Scott claims 50-70 per-cent of the agriculture work-force would immediatelybecome unemployable. “Itwould gut the agriculturalworkforce,” he says.

Scott’s program is a legalway for agriculture employersto locate seasonal workers.The H-2A program is a guestworker program that is runthrough the United StatesDepartment of Labor (DOL).Worker agents will locatecapable, qualified, and legalworkers in other countries forfarmers who can prove theyhave a seasonal need. (Fulltime workers are not includedin the program.) HomelandSecurity and the Departmentof State also take part, run-ning background checks onthe individuals before issuingthem special farm-labor tem-porary working visas.

H-2A workers do not com-pete with the local economicdownturn, though that hasbeen a past criticism. In actu-ality, farmers must attempt tohire American citizens byadvertising in papers andonline job sites before the DOLwill admit them into the pro-

gram. Both Gasperini andScott concur that this almostnever garners enough employ-ees. A farmer may find one ortwo willing locals, but anentire crew to pick in theorchards almost never comesfrom an American workforce.

Farmers interested in usingworkers with H-2A visas mustcontact the DOL three to fourmonths before they needworkers. Scott outlines thefarmer’s responsibilities percontract as: furnish up-to-code housing, pay for all work-ers’ visas and transportationcosts, and pay workers a min-imum hourly wage specifiedstate-by-state. In return forthese responsibilities, farmersreceive a workforce that islegal and has been hand-picked to their needs. Theemployees come for the benefitof receiving good jobs guaran-teed through the season andan income that is above whattheir opportunities may have

previously been.Gasperini does not see the

H-2A program as all sweetsmelling roses, however. TheNCAE has put together abrochure outlining and graph-ing the complaints their mem-bers have, including: Farmersnot receiving their workforcein time, heightened investiga-tions by the DOL, workersleaving the farm mid-season,and much bureaucratic confu-sion.

The program is also expen-sive. Farmers total cost of visaand transportation is roughly$600/employee plus a $3-4,000 flat contract fee for theH-2A agent. And these costsare in addition to the farmers’responsibilities of lodging andhourly wage, which stateshave slated quite high — mostare well above minimum wage.These costs are only if the pro-gram runs smoothly.

Agriculture & Politics:Legislative decisions that impact farm labor

Workers line up at the end of the day to placewhat they’ve picked into the bins.

Photo courtesy of Reenders Blueberry Farms

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A worker prunes grapevines during the early summerseason.

Photo by Sally ColbyLabor page 15

by Diana Barnum, Correspondent

he coming of the New Year bringsto mind a famous quote by BenjaminFranklin, United States FoundingFather, economist and passionate agri-culturalist, “An investment in knowl-edge pays the best interest.” The badnews for the new year, though, is thatmany vegetable and fruit growers will bebattling a variety of pests. However, thegood news is that they will be armedwith plenty of knowledge to help withtheir crops, i.e. university educatorsand government funded grant help andother resources. In a nutshell, growerswill be able to benefit from the availabil-ity of more reduced-risk pesticides and

other resources in the works with edu-cators and programs including TheOhio State University, the SpecialtyCrop Research Initiative (SCRI) andIowa State University, the OrganicResearch and Extension Initiative(OREI) and Rutgers University.

“Growers are worried about thebrown marmorated stink bug (BMSB)on apples. And Drosophila wreak havocon raspberries, strawberries, peachesand cherries,” said Bill Dodd, ProgramDirector for Ohio Apples.

Also the Director of the Ohio ApplesMarketing Program (OAMP) and thePresident of the Ohio Fruit GrowersMarketing Association (FGMA), Doddpointed out that help is underway for

growers in the form of governmentgrants, referencing Dr. Celeste Welty asan authority for fruit and vegetable pesthelp.

“I am (with) part of two regional proj-ects that are starting up this year. Oneis focused on squash and melon man-agement with funding from SCRI andbased at Iowa State University,” saidCeleste Welty, Ph.D., ExtensionEntomologist & Associate Professor ofEntomology, The Ohio State University.“The other is focused on organic man-agement of brown marmorated stinkbug, funded by OREI and based atRutgers University. I have a healthycolony of stink bugs in my lab this win-ter which will be used next spring forfield surveys of egg parasitoids.”

Pest Interview with Dr. WeltyEven though field work carried Dr.

Welty to South America over the holi-days, she reached out to help fellowgrowers via some e-mailed interviewquestions below.

Please describe some of your mostrecent or current pest control proj-ects.

Dr. Welty (Dr.): I work in theDepartment of Entomology at OhioState where I have extension as mymain role but I also do research andteaching. For extension and research, Ifocus on insect pests of vegetable andfruit crops.

I have current projects on cucumberbeetles in cucurbits, earworms in sweetcorn, thrips on cabbage, and mites andcaterpillars in apples. For all of these, Iam attempting to combine multiple tac-tics for pest management. Longer termaspects involve biological and culturalcontrols, while shorter term aspects areprimarily chemical control. I chooseprojects based on frequent conversa-tions with Ohio farmers and extensionagents about pest problems that theyare seeing in their field operations.

In my type of work, we use a lot ofinsect traps for monitoring pest popula-tions; this includes some traps withspecialized pheromone lures, and somewith general attractants. Other thanthat, the equipment is quite simple,with our eyeballs and paper as the mostcritical elements. We need to assesspest density on many crops (sometimesknown as the squat, squint, and countroutine). For some assessments of smallinsects, we need to gather field samplesand examine them under a microscope.We use temperature data in degree-daymodels for predicting biological eventsfor some pests. To rear insects or tomaintain lab colonies, we use variouscages.

What are some top industry chal-lenges regarding pest control?

1) New pests (such as spotted wingDrosophila, brown marmorated stinkbug, western bean cutworm, swedemidge) are always a challenge, althoughwe still have plenty of problems with oldpests.

2) Insecticide resistance in some pestspecies is an increasing problem.

3) Organic growers have challengeswith lack of effective tactics for somepests.

Bright spots in the industry yousee ahead?

Increasing interest in locally pro-duced foods.

Availability of more reduced-risk pes-ticides.

Please share a couple pest controltips that either work and/or failed.

Most of our sweet corn growers arepleased with their worm control pro-gram if they are basing the insecticidespray schedule on monitoring the cornearworm moth population withpheromone traps. Some growers men-tion that they regret not starting theprogram earlier.

More of our tree fruit growers eachyear are using pheromone mating dis-ruption and finding it to be a helpfultactic, especially for peachtree borersand oriental fruit moth.

Anything new going on? In theworks?

We are about to release our firstphone app that is a guide for identifyingand encouraging beneficial insects. Ithas been interesting to see what isinvolved with developing this new formof information delivery. For more aboutthis, you could contact Jim Jasinskiwho is leading the effort: Jim Jasinski,Assistant Professor and InterimIntegrated Pest Management ProgramCoordinator, The Ohio State UniversityExtension at 937-484-1526 or jasins-ki.4@osu.edu. You can also visitwww.ipm.osu.edu for more help.

Bob Precheur, our Extension VegSpecialist in the Hort Dept at OSU iscreating some e-pubs and some shortvideos about current topics such as thebiology and management of brown mar-morated stink bug. For more on that,contact Bob at precheur.1@osu.edu.

In summary, as a reminder byBenjamin Franklin who said, “By failingto prepare, you are preparing to fail,”preparing for pests in 2013 meansgrowers need to be armed. They needpheromone traps, reduced-risk pesti-cides, spray schedules and continuededucation.

Learn more by contacting CelesteWelty, Ph.D., at welty.1@osu.edu or visithttp://pro.osumc.edu/profiles/welty.1

Tackling Fruit and Veggie Pests in 2013Interview with OSU’s Celeste Welty, Ph.D., Extension Entomologist &

Associate Professor of Entomology

The Monthly Newspaper for Greenhouses, Nurseries, Fruit & Vegetable Growers

Country Folks

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Country Folks

Cover photo by Sally ColbyWinter pruning is one of the most important

tasks in the apple orchard.

Industry resourcesused by

Dr. Celeste Welty • For identification of insects:

www.bugwood.org and www.bug-guide.net

• For pictures of insects: www.com-mons.wikimedia.org and www.bug-wood.org.

• For access to current insecticidelabels: www.cdms.net and the OhioPesticide Information RetrievalS y s t e mhttp://state.ceris.purdue.edu/doc/oh/stateoh.html

• For information about invasivepests: www.ceris.purdue.edu/ceris

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