A Geraldo Jepez moves New Guinea Impatiens to make room for

GILROY
– Making a living as a family farmer is

getting harder,

according to Tamiko Takeda, who grows flowering plants at her
and her husband’s Mount Green Nursery in San Martin.
A batch of statistics released Wednesday indicates that Takeda’s
description applies to agriculture as a whole in Santa Clara
County.
GILROY – Making a living as a family farmer is “getting harder,” according to Tamiko Takeda, who grows flowering plants at her and her husband’s Mount Green Nursery in San Martin.

A batch of statistics released Wednesday indicates that Takeda’s description applies to agriculture as a whole in Santa Clara County.

Farm production in this county dropped 6 percent from 2002 to 2003, according to the 2003 crop report issued Wednesday by the county Agriculture Department. County farmers produced more than $241 million worth of crops last year, about $14.5 million less than the year before.

This agrarian decline is nothing new for the Silicon Valley and its environs. In the three years from 2000 to 2003, the value of the county’s farm produce slid 20 percent – and that’s not accounting for inflation.

Numerous trends are making farming harder, including rising energy and water costs, but it is the high price of real estate that makes selling out a more attractive option every year.

“This county has been gradually developing itself, urbanizing at the expense of agricultural land,” county Agricultural Commissioner Greg Van Wassenhove said Wednesday. “Development is taking agricultural land out of production.”

Van Wassenhove isn’t alone in this perspective.

Development-driven land value was the dominant explanation given by farmers who talked to county agriculture biologist Lori Oleson as she collected crop data from them, she said.

Paul Battaglia, who grows Christmas trees at Battaglia Ranch in San Martin, said farmers are seeing declining returns on the time and capital they invest. An increasing part of this investment comes from complying with scores of environmental regulations.

For example, Battaglia said, he is required to put together a water runoff plan and attend multi-day classes to ensure runoff from his farm doesn’t pollute the local aquifer. In addition, he said, methyl bromide, an air-polluting soil fumigant he uses, will soon be phased out with no replacement yet in sight.

“I think it’s necessary,” Battaglia said. “We will comply. That’s just one more little thing that we’ve got to do.

“A lot of people just get tired and can’t do it anymore and just give up,” he said. As older farmers retire, he added, few heirs want to take their places.

Battaglia’s grandfather started the family farm in 1918 in Sunnyvale growing cherries, apricots, prunes and walnuts. They later moved to north San Jose to focus on cherries and, in 1997, made a more drastic switch to San Martin and Christmas trees, direct to the customer.

“The small family farmer … it just doesn’t happen,” Battaglia said. “There are still some of us who are going to endure, mostly because we love the land.”

Mount Green Nursery is an exception; just three employees work with the Takedas. The 19-year-old farm specializes in flowers for hanging baskets, which it sells to small nurseries in Santa Clara County, Fremont and Danville. It also sell poinsettias to the public before Christmas.

Nursery crops – which include Takeda’s potted flowers, Battaglia’s Christmas trees and other ornamental plants, trees, flowers and shrubs – remained the county’s number-one ag category for the third straight year, but this leader is faltering. Nursery crop production slipped 9 percent since 2002, according to the crop report.

Takeda said this sounds right. She is finding many of the small nurseries she sells to are shutting down due to low-cost pressure from big-box stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s.

On the other hand, Oleson said, “I’ve already heard for 2004 that (nursery farmers) are having a really good year.”

Mushrooms, the second strongest county crop, held the line in 2003 and made slight gains. Mushrooms were the county’s top crop in 1999, after which nursery crops took over.

Bell peppers stayed at number three, but with a 25 percent drop in production value since 2002.

Cut flower sales rose 4 percent to stay at number four.

An increased national appetite for beef – due in part to the popularity of the Atkins high-protein diet – prompted steer and heifer production value to jump 18 percent and three rankings to number four.

Wine grapes faltered by nearly 19 percent and dropped one spot to number six.

Garlic, Gilroy’s signature crop, did not crack the list of 25 crops that made $1 million or more last year in the county. It has been since 1999 that garlic was a “million-dollar crop,” according to Oleson.

For years, Santa Clara County farmers have been tending toward growing nursery crops, mushrooms and flowers because these crops make more money on less space, and space is a precious commodity here, Van Wassenhove said. Farmers grew grain here in the past, he noted, but have since moved toward a more intensive use of their land.

Peter Crowley covers public safety for The Dispatch. You can reach him at [email protected] or 847-7109.

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