University of California president Robert Dynes recently got a lesson on salad making from the ground up, from a description of the soils that salad greens are grown on to watching mixed greens being rinsed and bagged for retail sale. During his visit to the Central Coast, Dynes met with growers, observed a lettuce harvest and toured two very different produce packing facilities. He also spent time on the Elkhorn Slough learning about ANR coastal marine programs and observing the abundant wildlife on one of California's most productive waterways.
 
As part of his ongoing tour of California regions and communities, Dynes and other senior UC staff visited San Benito, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties on June 30 and July 1 with Vice President Reg Gomes, UCCE Santa Cruz County director Laura Tourte, UCCE Monterey County director Sonya Varea Hammond, Office of Governmental and External Relations executive director Steve Nation and ANR advisors and specialists.
 
The tour began with a visit to Earthbound Farm near San Juan Bautista. With more than 24,500 acres in production, the company is one of the world's largest organic growers. En route to the plant, Ramy Colfer, chief organic agricultural researcher for Earthbound subsidiary Mission Organic, talked about organic production and his collaboration with ANR researchers and UCCE specialists and advisors on a variety of pest management and cover crop studies.
 
On arrival, Dynes and company donned hairnets, hardhats and lab coats for a guided tour of the packing line. Earthbound's director of quality assurance Will Daniels pointed out that organically certified fruits and vegetables arrive from the field in white bins, whereas those grown on land not yet certified as organic are moved in yellow bins and kept separate. Color-coded uniforms and hardhats also prevent contamination that might occur from workers moving from the noncertified line to the organic line. Dynes watched as workers hoisted bins of radicchio, baby lettuces and other greens, systematically layering the tender leaves in a trough that would fill cellophane bags of mixed greens.
 
This was followed by a lunch of organically grown salad with Earthbound founder Drew Goodman and vice president for farming Todd Kodet, who related some of the challenges of growing and marketing organically grown produce. Earthbound Farm supplies organic produce to 75 percent of all grocery stores in the nation, including Trader Joe's.
 
As an organic grower, Goodman noted the importance of UC research and extension to his industry. Kodet echoed this, acknowledging the contributions of Smith and entomology advisor Bill Chaney. Goodman said developing effective, sustainable production practices for organic farming was a research priority for Earthbound.

UC research and extension are important to industry, Salinas grower Ron Yokota, on right, told UC president Robert C. Dynes as they watched iceberg lettuce being harvested and field packed.

The next morning, Dynes met with Tanimura & Antle farm manager Ron Yokota and lettuce general manager Darren Filkins near Spreckles to observe the harvest and field packing of iceberg lettuce. Lettuce is the top crop in Monterey County. UC Davis weed specialist Steve Fennimore described his and UCCE vegetable crops advisor Richard Smith's studies of nonchemical means of weed control such as alternative mechanical cultivators, cover crops and preirrigation, as well as new reduced-risk herbicides. Their research has secured registration for reduced-risk herbicides on celery, peppers and spinach.
 
Yokota, who works with plant pathology advisor Steve Koike, Fennimore, Smith and Chaney, emphasized the continuing need for UC research to help the agricultural industry prevent crop disease, improve quality and reduce environmental impact. He noted that UC can scientifically verify what growers think they see in the field.
 
"The services they provide to the agricultural industry are very important to us," Yokota said. "The DANR workgroup for optimizing soil management for cool season vegetables, which was spearheaded by [UC Davis] Professor Louise Jackson, and now taken over by Richard Smith and [UCCE irrigation and water quality advisor] Michael Cahn, is an example of doing practical research that can benefit both farmers and researchers."
 
Dynes also met with NewStar Fresh Foods executives David Eldredge, Bob Whitaker and Steve McShane at their year-old Salinas plant to discuss biosecurity and food safety, which begin with visitors checking in at a security guard station before entering the surveillance camera-monitored premises. The UC group watched baby spinach and herbs being washed, sorted and packaged on the highly automated processing line, before observing a demonstration of a new radiofrequency identification tagging system being tested by NewStar. This technology will track produce and monitor its condition from field to retailers nationwide.
 
Koike, who oversees a plant pathology lab at the UCCE offices in Salinas, described how identifying the race of disease affecting spinach enables growers to plant resistant varieties and reduce yield losses. UCCE specialist Marita Cantwell from UC Davis described her studies of green onion and spinach to preserve product quality after harvest.

Dynes, Gomes, Tourte and other UC staff also traveled to Moss Landing for a tour of Elkhorn Slough led by Rick Starr, UCCE marine advisor, and Andrew DeVogelaere, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary's research coordinator. As the Boston whalers passed sea otters, brown pelicans, resting harbor seals and myriad shorebirds, Starr and DeVogelaere discussed their collaborative projects educating commercial fishermen about marine protected areas and healthy fisheries. Starr also described a project with recreational and sport fishermen in the Bay Area to tag rockfish and lingcod to monitor population sizes and movements. Tourte talked about her work with local dairies and farms to reduce runoff and contamination of this ecologically valuable waterway.
 
Dynes will continue his tour of agricultural sites with a visit on July 28 to Nurserymen's Exchange and UC's Elkus Youth Ranch in Half Moon Bay.