Organic farming methods take root at Fresno State

[Kadie]

Organic farming methods take root at Fresno State
University's agriculture department dips a tentative toe into teaching about organics.
Posted at 11:13 PM on Sunday, Apr. 24, 2011
By Tara Albert / Special To The Bee


For decades, a single philosophy has prevailed inside the Fresno State agriculture department. Whether is was growing grapes or almonds or producing milk, students were taught that the best way to farm – indeed the only way – was to rely on conventional methods.

The university, in short, reflected the bottom-line maxim of industrial agriculture: pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. But over the past few years, a quiet shift has taken place inside the agriculture department.

For the first time, Fresno State is offering a course in organic farming and has invited one of the Valley's premier organic vegetable growers to lecture its students. At the same time, a group of younger, more progressive teachers has replaced a set of veteran professors who regarded the tenets of organic farming with skepticism, if not disdain.

This shift in ideology has literally taken root on a patch of soil across from the campus dairy and tucked behind the Rue and Gwen Gibson Farm Market at Barstow and Chestnut avenues. Organic beets, garlic, carrots and broccoli, row after perfect row, are ready to be harvested.


Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/04/24/2362816/organic-methods-trickle-into-fresno.html#ixzz1KZBMoajW

[movonne]

1. This is pretty left-wing for fresno...I believe that this is the home of the freepers...