Conference highlights valley's organic growers

Julian Cunningham has cut down on the number of acres in production on his Creston-area organic farm, but not because there’s a lack of interest in his produce.

Cunningham, who for 17 years ran Swallow Crest Farm as both a certified and noncertified organic fruit and vegetable business, is instead putting much of his energy into the new Flathead Valley Community College agriculture program.

As the campus farm manager, Cunningham this winter is working on the construction of the new agriculture building and its adjacent 1,000-square-foot greenhouse, as well as projects such as deer fencing for the 5-acre farm.

The agriculture program, which started this semester, is part of the reason that the Montana Organic Association decided to hold its 11th annual three-day conference at the college.

The conference wrapped up Saturday. Some of the top scientists and growers in the organic movement from across the state and country gave presentations and workshops. Local farmers and others involved in the valley’s organic scene also spoke at the conference.

Cunningham and FVCC agriculture director Heather Estrada gave a presentation during the conference on the college program, which offers a two-year Associate of Applied Science degree in integrated agriculture and food systems.

Estrada said the program trains students in plant, crop and soil sciences  as well as business skills and entrepreneurship. It presents both organic and conventional farming practices, though the on-campus farm will be managed using organic methods.

Estrada is originally from Alberta, Canada, and has an agricultural background in both organic and conventional farming. She worked for an organic center in Canada and her doctoral thesis compared organic systems for growing wheat.

She said growers don’t have to convert to total organic methodologies to gain the benefits.

“There are some great agronomic practices used in organics that could be used in conventional farming,” she said. “Crop rotations, cover crops — those are all important in organic, but have maybe lost their importance somewhere along the way in conventional agriculture.”

 After working with conventional farmers through her five years at the Montana State University Creston agricultural station, she still has been approached by numerous farmers interested in reducing their use of chemicals. Flathead Valley’s bigger farms are less likely to be organic, she said, because they are largely growing grain or forage crops, while local organic farming is all in direct-to-table produce.

Cunningham, who for many years delivered produce to about 160 families through his Swallow Crest community-supported agriculture program, has been involved in organic farming in Missouri, Norway, Idaho and Montana.

“In all of the years I’ve been involved in organic farming — looking at marketing and people’s interest in choosing organic — it’s steadily grown,” he said.

He said he believes that in the Flathead Valley the overall acreage farmed organically may have actually dropped, although on the east side of the state large organic grain farms bring up the statewide average of organic production.

“Conventional grain prices have been really good the last few years, so I’m not sure what the incentive is on this side of the state,”  he said. “One thing might be animal feed. If we had an organic animal feed supplier, that might be a good market. I know there’s a demand there.”

He reduced his own organic crop space from 6 acres to 1 acre last year. The land is being mostly farmed by his daughter and a friend, and possibly a volunteer or two.

“There are tons of young people who want apprenticeships in organic vegetable and fruit growing,” he said. “We can operate on a small scale and let it be a dress rehearsal for someone who wants experience but isn’t quite ready to delve into their own enterprise.”

Todd Ulizio, who gave a conference presentation on transitioning into and being certified in organic farming, got his own start through a year of apprenticeship. He now owns Ten Lakes Farm, which for six years was located near Eureka but is moving to a 65-acre spot close to Whitefish. (Not all of it will be in production.)

Ulizio and his wife, Rebecca, along with apprentice help, run a large farm-share program and sell produce through farmers markets and to schools, grocery stores and a few local restaurants.

Diversity is the key to running a successful organic business, Ulizio said, especially when the small farmer is competing against large industrial operations, which grow on a large scale and can operate on a 1 percent margin, allowing them to offer cheap produce to wide markets.

“The tricky part is finding markets for the small farmer so you can actually make a living,” Ulizio said. “Some markets pay better than others and some are difficult to access, and then we’re also competing against organics from different countries.

“We’re all looking for different customers, and we need the ones looking for better food, not necessarily the cheapest food.”

Working against the food status quo — what Ulizio calls the “salt, fat, butter mindset” — is not always easy. But he believes strongly in the mission of organic farming.

“I feel like this is food, and these are the building blocks of your body,” he said. “So it makes sense to eat the healthiest you can. When you look at conventional practices, those chemicals don’t make sense to me.”

Judy Owsowitz of Terrapin Farm in Whitefish has been a certified organic farmer since the mid-1990s. She was chairwoman of the board for the Montana Organic Association conference.

Her business grows a little every year, she said, as people in the Flathead “are becoming more and more aware of the importance of what organic is and what it means.”

“I wouldn’t do it any other way,” she said of her own organic operation. “It’s an assurance to my customers — to my eaters — that I’m doing it right.”

Business reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.