FARMERS FINDING PROFITS BY GOING ORGANIC GROWING TREND SPREADING ROOTS IN SOUTHLAND, NATION.

Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer

MOORPARK - Moorpark organic farmer Greg Berry planted his first blueberries three years ago on an acre and a half of land. This past year he shipped out 5,000 pounds, and he plans on doubling that this year.

Berry has gone organic as organic has gone mainstream, with more stores - from bulk-seller Costco to the more boutique-like Trader Joe's - offering produce grown without pesticides or commercial fertilizer.

``Hopefully, it will pay for my kids' college education,'' Berry said.

Although organic farmers account for just 2 percent of the nation's farmers, they represent 20 to 24 percent of farming's growth rate. In Ventura County, organic crops compose 3.4 percent of the harvest.

``One of the reasons is that there is more product in multiple locations. You don't just have it at farmers markets anymore,'' said Katherine DiMatteo, executive director of the Massachusetts-based Organic Trade Association, which represents 1,300 companies and organizations with $13 billion in retail sales of organic products.

A federal certification program put into place last year has also spurred growth, said Ray Green, who oversees the California Organic Program, part of the division of inspection services.

``The conventional retail stores were waiting for it to get more legitimized,'' said Green, citing an organic tomato juice that Campbell Soup Co. introduced this past year, and the push by bigger supermarkets to include more organic food in the produce aisles.

``In the last 18 months, we are seeing mainstream conventional farmers start to look more closely at organic and start to develop organic lines,'' he said.

Last year, California farmers grew $16 million worth of organic grapes and another $13 million of organic lettuce, much for prepackaged bags of salad.

In Ventura County, strawberries were the most lucrative organic crop, yielding $2.4 million on 581 acres. Leaf vegetables followed, with $1.3 million in sales and 38 acres devoted to them.

At the onset of the organic movement, many of the farmers were idealists who sought alternatives to pesticides. A decade ago, Ventura County had four registered organic farmers. Today there are 49. Though their presence is small next to the county's $1.1 billion agricultural industry, experts predict their influence will continue to grow with the popularity of organic produce and with the United States Department of Food and Agriculture's new national certification system.

``Ten years ago, there were a lot more first-time farmers. Now you have seen more long-timers switching their acres, farmers who already have the infrastructure in place. Their buyers may have said, 'Hey, I am getting a lot of inquiries,''' said Bob Scowcroft, director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation in Santa Cruz.

Driven in part by the increased demand of supermarket chains and by the lucrative returns, many farmers have split their land between organic and nonorganic acreage.

``There is a market window that is being fulfilled,'' said Moorpark's Berry, a former manufacturing supervisor with a degree in biochemistry.

``I can't say I grew up wanting to be an organic farmer, but I liked the outside and I didn't like the use of chemicals,'' said Berry, who lives on the farm with his wife and two children.

Scowcroft estimates the return on an organic crop versus a conventionally grown crop can run anywhere from 15 percent to 100 percent more, depending on the type. Yet, it's also much more labor-intensive, often requiring farmhands to pull individual weeds - sometimes on hundreds of acres - instead of relying on pesticides.

Under the 2002 federal certification program, organic farmers are prohibited from using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewer sludge; bioengineering; and ionizing radiation. They must document their land has been free of pesticides and commercial fertilizer for at least three years.

Since the program's start, certifiers such as Randolph and Susan Siple, who own Organic Certifiers Inc. in Ventura, have witnessed an upswing in the applicants, with at least one Ventura County farmer inquiring every three weeks, and two or three from outside the county applying.

``There's a bunch of people who get into it looking for a better financial gain than what they had,'' Randolph Siple said. And in large part, they are finding it, with what he estimates is a 30 to 40 percent increase in profits for his clients.

``If I was going to make the same profit growing conventional versus organic, I would grow organic. It's a more responsible way of farming. It's better stewardship of the land and not falling back on the easy route with cheap fertilizer,'' Berry said.

Rachel Uranga, [phone]

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Greg Berry of Moorpark, who took up blueberry farming three years ago, checks out the 3-month-old organic plants on his land surrounded by barley, field peas and oats.

(2) Out in the field, organic farmer Greg Berry walks along his Moorpark farm's blueberry plants. Berry shipped out 5,000 pounds of berries in the past year.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer