Organic brought to campus

By Donna Taketa
The Collegian

Saturday morning the sun hadn’t yet reached its peak when the last of 4,000 organic broccoli seedlings were planted in the field just north of Fresno State’s Farm Market.

“It’s fun to get your hands dirty,” said Margot Federkiel, treasurer of the Students for Environmentally Responsible Agriculture. “It will be pretty smooth sailing. We’ll just have to come by to check on it.”

The crop is the first for the club, which plans to sell the organic produce at the Farm Market when it is harvested in November.

“We don’t want to go over our head in the beginning,” said Brian Smith, SERA president. “Starting off it’s good to specialize.”

The club recently received the less-than-an-acre parcel of land from the university. With it they hope to expand into different crops, all grown organically.

“I believe organic is better for the earth and for you,” Smith said. Smith and other members of the club are motivated by increasing numbers of fellow students interested in organic produce.

“I prefer organic because it’s a better quality,” said Federkiel. “But on a student’s budget it doesn’t always quite work.”

Keeping with the organic approach, pesticides and herbicides are not used. The group purchased organic seedlings and planted the rows by hand.

“I’m glad the labor is free,” Smith said of the dozen or so people that came out to assist with the planting. Adviser Jim Farrar of the plant science department was also present.

“Right now we’re really hurting with numbers,” Smith said. “Hopefully this will generate some interest in the club.”

SERA members are mainly enology and viticulture majors, though students from any major are welcome.

“Our school is agriculturally based and we don’t have a lot of Ag clubs on campus, so it’s good to support something like this,” said Krystal Goulart, an enology major.

“The day was beautiful and they needed help,” said Christian Perez, who came out to plant, though not a member.

The broccoli will be harvested sequentially and will probably be priced slightly higher than conventional prices, Farrar said. Profits will be used by the club for future plantings and club events.

“We started off sort of easy to not get too crazy,” Smith said. “We needed something low maintenance because we didn’t know how many people would show up.”

“I have hopes of eventually planting perennials and even stone fruits,” said Matt Naylor, a plant science major and SERA vice president.

Naylor comes from a family whose background is in organic agriculture.

“I see a farm as an ecosystem, and organic is the only way to maintain a healthy ecosystem,” he said. “There’s a lot of life in organic agriculture: microbes, worms, all that cool stuff.”