Field Days :: 2006 Sustainable Cotton Tour

Mid-October 2006 , Fresno

Report from Cotton Tour 2005

Sustainable Cotton Project Farm Tour

Date: Thursday, October 19, 2006

Time: 7:00am-5:30pm

Location: Fresno, California

Admission: Open to all

Contact: Dawn Van Dyke at (530) 756-8518 ext. 27 or dawn@caff.org to register and for more information.

Description:  A one-day tour of the San Joaquin Valley that will challenge your perceptions about what agriculture is and what it could become.

Report from Cotton Tour 2005

By Matt Valdin

In late October (2005), the Sustainable Cotton Project held its annual Sustainable Cotton Tour in Fresno County. It was our largest tour to date, with over 50 people attending including representatives from Levis, NASA, Wal-Mart, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the Organic Exchange, and many others from the cotton industry. Levi Strauss & Company was nice enough to sponsor our tour this year. Thank you  Levis!

Starting from the Piccadilly Inn in Fresno, we headed to Terranova Ranch to view the only organic cotton in California. The farm’s general manager, Don Cameron, spoke about difficulties and lessons learned from growing organic Pima cotton. Though Terranova could grow other crops with greater profitability, the farm is growing organic cotton because they are committed to environmental stewardship and are trying to farm in a more ecologically sound manner.

Pinoche Gin was the next stop.  Participants were able to see what happens to cotton after it is picked and put into modules. We were met by the manager, Ed Wandzell,who described how cotton lint is separated from the seed and then baled for transport to a spinning facility. He also explained the mandatory bale numbering system, which assures traceability of each bale from the field through processing.

Firebaugh City Park was the destination for our lunch stop.  Food provided by a local Taqueria was supplemented with local fruits and organic heirloom tomatoes by BASIC grower John Teixeira’s Lone Willow Farm.  We discovered the hard way that the park’s sprinkers come on in the afternoon, and were forced to take cover out of the sprinklers' reach. Luckily, Jose Antonio Ramierez, Firebaugh City Manager, came to the rescue and turned off the water system.

Our lunchtime speaker was Dr. Marcia Sablan, of the Sablan Medical Clinic, who spoke to us about her health clinic and the impacts that agriculture has on air quality and the health of local residents. Her talk emphasized to participants the importance of pesticide reduction and the vital role that projects like SCP play in reducing farm impacts. We also heard from BASIC grower Frank Williams who talked about his participation in the BASIC program and then invited us to head out to see his cotton field.

We boarded the buses and headed toward the west side of the San Joaquin Valley to Windfall Farms. Windfall has had two 80-acre cotton fields enrolled in the BASIC program since 2001. Growers Mark Fickett and Frank Williams greeted us and showed the techniques they have implemented as BASIC growers, including intercropping cotton with alfalfa plants to provide a sink for the Lygus bugs, as well as the use of annual hedgerows composed of sunflowers, corn, sorghum, dill and mustard, to provide habitat for beneficial insects.

At the end of the day, the bus headed to the Piccadilly Inn full of tired cotton enthusiasts. Everyone in attendance seemed to enjoy the tour and left with a better understanding of how to support California cotton growers in their efforts to reduce cotton’s environmental impacts.