ag circle spring 2015
DESCRIPTION
This is our Spring issue of the 2015 Ag Circle Magazine.TRANSCRIPT
Stahlbush Island Farms, page 23Cal Poly Rose Parade FLoa
t, page 12
Urba
n Produce, page 5
agcirclecal poly, san luis obispo|spring 2015
2 | Spring 2015
Welcome to the Spring 2015 issue of Ag Circle! In this issue, we have a sharp focus on campus events that are sure to make history. You will find an explanation of the Brock Center for Agricultural Communication’s plans to expand into video production with a new agricultural communication course, a feature on the Greek letter organizations who affiliate with agriculture, a behind the scenes look at the making of Cal Poly’s award-winning Rose Parade float, and details about the 25-year-old time capsule that was unearthed and the plan to bury a new one.
The centerfold has a feature on the retirement of Dr. Bill Kellogg, the Agricultural Education and Communication Department Head. Dr. Kellogg has been an amazing influence on us in the Brock Center, and we thought it would be appropriate to honor him before his departure.
We also included a story detailing the process of wine bottling at Chamisal Vineyards, a story showing where various CAFES alumni are today, and a story explaining how grazing regulations are expected to affect the agricultural industry in California.
We hope you enjoy reading this issue!
A LETTER FROM THE STAFF
CONTRIBUTORSLeft to right: Hannah Beeler, Kaity Carpenter, Dani Diele, Sonja Eschenburg, Rylin Lindahl, Diane Meyer, Caitlin Paulus, Trevor Surrock, Marianna Zavala
Jordan, Kenna, Katie & Harrison
agcircle | 3
agcircleVolume 33, Issue 2, Spring 201Published three times a year by the Brock Center for Agricultural Communication
California Polytechnic State UniversityBrock Center for Agricultural Communication1 Grand AvenueSan Luis Obispo, CA 93407
[email protected] 10, Room 234
Editor-in-ChiefJordan Dunn
Faculty AdvisorMegan Silcott
Associate EditorsKenna LewisHarrison ReillyKatie Roberti
WritersHannah Beeler, Kaity Carpenter, Dani Diele, Joseph Dominguez, Jordan Dunn, Sonja Eschenburg, Kenna Lewis, Rylin Lindahl, Diane Meyer, Caitlin Paulus, Harrison Reilly, Katie Roberti, Trevor Surrock, Marianna Zavala
PhotographersAlpha Gamma Rho, Associated Students Inc., Melisa Augusto, Nicole Billington, Mandy Brazil, CAFES Student Council, Alden Caldwell, Kaity Carpenter, Young Choi, Jordan Dunn, Sara Eidman Hallenbech, Carrie Isaacson, Oppenheimer Family, Jennifer Ray, Katie Roberti, Sigma Alpha, Stahlbush Island Farms, Tomato Mania Enterprise, Urban Produce
Graphic DesignersJordan Dunn, Katie RobertiSubmissions to agcircle are welcome.
Permission to ReproduceAll material in this issue may be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the Brock Center for Agricultural Communication.
The contents of agcircle are generated by students, and do not reflect the opinions of California Polytechnic State University, its administration or faculty.
This issue of agcircle was printed by PRP Companies.
C O N T E N T S CAMPUS BUZZ
04 COMMUNICATING FOR TOMORROW The Brock Center for Agricultural Communication has plans to expand
05 RISING UP One company’s plan to feed the growing population with vertical technology
07 LEADING THE WAY CAFES students take leadership to the next level
09 AGRICULTURE GOES GREEK Greek letter organizations on campus that affiliate with agriculture
11 SOARING TO NEW HEIGHTS Cal Poly universities win big at the Rose Parade
14 HISTORY IN THE MAKING CAFES plans to update facilities with $20 million donation
15 TOMATO MANIA The Tomato Mania Enterprise prepares for their upcoming event
16 ONE OF CAL POLY’S MVPS RETIRES A feature on Dr. Kellogg , the Agricultural Education & Communication Department Head
18 TREASURE FOR THE FUTURE CAFES reveals contents of 25 year old time capsule
LOCAL19 RINCONADA DAIRY A feature of a local sheep dairy
20 THE ART OF WINE BOTTLING A walk-through of the process of wine bottling at Chamisal Vineyards
IN THE INDUSTRY23 FARMING BEGINS WITH FAMILY Family values help run a sustainable operation
26 HOME AWAY FROM “SLOME” A feature on various CAFES alumni
28 RANCHING IN A STATE OF REGULATION How grazing regulation may affect California agriculture
31 SAVING AN INDUSTRY The future of the forestry industry and managing natural resource regulations
4 | Spring 2015
The Brock Center for Agricultural Com-munication is expanding! As of 2015, the Brock Center acquired a new room
to offer students more opportunities beyond the classroom experience – this time with an emphasis on multimedia.
“With the paradigm shift in communi-cation these days, we know we have to in-volve students in more video production and social media engagement, in addition to the print media we already produce,” J. Scott Vernon, professor of agricultural communication, said.
“The room will be used as a supplement to in-class activities and outside projects for agricultural communication students,” Vernon explained.
“We want to stay on the leading edge of what’s happening in the industry,” Vernon said. “We see the impact of video and how it’s evolving and emerging in agricultural com-munications. That room will be a focus of new media and the visuals needed to communicate agriculture’s story.”
The Digital Video and Social Media Engage-ment Lab (Building 10, Room 232), located across the hallway from the Brock Center’s current office, will be furnished with a film studio and Mac desktop computers. The com-puters will be continually updated with cur-rent software to provide students with an un-derstanding of the newest industry standards.
“We will have a full studio in the back for producing videos”, Vernon said. “In the front, we will have a computer lab for conducting editing and looking at social media metrics and engagement in social media campaigns. It’s not just doing social media, it’s under-standing and being able to measure the return on engagement.”
Every aspect of the new lab is based on in-dustry input as the Brock Center Advisory Council provided suggestions for professional equipment and programs students should be utilizing in their careers.
“We will be using industry standard soft-ware and equipment,” Vernon said. “The stu-dents will learn how to use Adobe Premier. As we visit with professionals all over the nation, they tell us this is becoming the standard of which video editing happens.”
With the new lab will come a new course, AGC 301 (New Media Engagement), so students can
take full advantage of the space. The class will teach students how to operate the equipment, use software to edit videos and track social media trends.
“New Media Engagement is a class that we wrote to start in the Fall of 2015,” Vernon said. “It’s going to be incorporated into the agricul-tural communication major itself.”
The Brock Center was started in 1986, and has been improving itself since. With each new team of Brock Associates comes new ideas and opportunities for the Brock Center to educate the public and students. The new lab will continue this trend and is expect-ed to be open for the spring 2015 quarter, Vernon explained.
“By next fall we expect to have the Video Editing and Social Media Engagement fully
running,” Vernon said. Megan Silcott, the Brock Center Director,
describes the new space as an extension of both the Journalism and Agricultural Educa-tion and Communication Departments.
“New things are always exciting. We get the chance to offer students new methods of learning and ways of adding to their profes-sional experiences,” Silcott said. “The Digital Video and Social Media Engagement Lab will give agricultural communication students additional skills that will help them be more competitive in the job market. The Brock Center staff looks forward to assisting stu-dents in that process.
Communicating for Tomorrow
STORY/PHOTOS BY JORDAN DUNN
agcircle | 5
CAMPUS BUZZ
Looming statistics show agricultural-ists will need to produce more food for the world’s growing population
than ever before. But how much more?Just to keep us going, farmers will need
to produce 70 percent more food by 2050, according to recent statistics by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The FAO also estimates the world population will increase by 2.3 billion in that time, and approximately 70 percent of the world’s citizens will be living in cities and urban areas.
Although we have heard these daunting statistics time and time again, the question still remains: How are we going to feed the billions of mouths expected to face hunger and malnourishment?
Edwin Horton, Jr. and Malcom Glen Kertz are two agriculturists working to answer this question. As the founders of Urban Pro-duce located in Irvine, Calif., their patented
greenhouse systems are changing the defi-nition of what it means to be a producer of locally grown, organic and sustainable food. Horton, President and CEO, and Kertz, Vice President of Growing Operations, com-bined their knowledge and skills of technol-ogy and plant physiology to create what is known as a High-Density Vertical Growing System (HDVGS). This innovative technol-ogy combines a fully-automated greenhouse system with vertical hydroponics to grow micro-greens, herbs and wheatgrass, while leaving a considerably smaller footprint than traditional row crop farming.
Within the 5,800 square foot facility are 355 carriers, each hooked onto a conveyor belt rotating through the greenhouse at all times. The racks of seedlings are continuous-ly exposed to equal amounts light, water and air distribution as they move throughout the unit. This 1/8-acre greenhouse can grow the same amount of produce as 16 acres of con-
Rising Up
STORY BY CAITLIN PAULUSPHOTOS PROVIDED BY URBAN PRODUCE
One company’s plans to feed the rising population with
new vertical technology
“We want to provide locally grown, organic,
sustainable produce to
everyone across the country
twenty-four-seven...”DANIELLE HORTON
Director of Marketing, Urban Produce
6 | Spring 2015
ventionally farmed land. Also, according to Urban Produce’s website, “the patented growing system requires 90 percent less water,” a vital statistic in lieu of recent conditions in California and other drought ridden areas.
In addition to its unique growing technology, Urban Pro-duce uses recycled coconut coir (husks) as a medium in-stead of soil. Not only is coconut coir sustainably harvest-ed, it has natural anti-microbial properties which reduce instances of mold, fungus and food-borne illnesses. Urban Pro-duce grows USDA certified organic produce and uses an in-door controlled environment eliminating the need for herbicides or pesticides.
Their products vary from mint to micro-greens, including Micro Broccoli and Kale-iforniaTM. Micro-greens, commonly confused with sprouts, are 7 to 14-day-old seedlings grown in soil or a soil sub-strate with plenty of aeration and light. Sprouts, on the other hand, are generally grown in water and are harvested much sooner. Since the leafy delicacies are not grown to a mature stage, they require little added nutrients; in fact Urban Produce currently does not use any fertilizers.
Though Urban Produce is a fairly new company in an emerging market, there are currently plans to expand across the country, and eventually go international. Within the next 12 months, they aim to establish five new growing units on the East Coast with more to come in the following years.
Cal Poly agribusiness graduate Danielle Horton, Director of Mar-keting for Urban Produce said, “The goal of Urban Produce is to eventually expand across the United States, and to have growing
units strategically placed within a certain radius of each other. We want to provide locally grown, organic, sustainable produce to ev-eryone across the country twenty-four-seven, 365 days a year.”
Their products can be found in supermarkets such as Albertsons and Fresh & Easy and will likely become available at other retailers as the company moves east.
Urban Produce plans to place each greenhouse system within 350 miles of each other, in order to provide people with the freshest pro-duce. This will allow the produce to be labeled as “locally grown”, because it travels no more than 350 miles.
Horton posed the question, “Why should someone in Cali-fornia be able to purchase a variety of fresh produce year round, while those in the Midwest and on the East Coast can only get it seasonally?”
The adaptable greenhouses can be placed above or below ground, inside or outside, and can be scaled to different sizes. This versatility means these units could potentially be placed in restaurants and schools and on cruise ships and military bases. Although they are fully-automated, the units do require minimal staff, which Urban Produce plans to hire from the surrounding areas, stimulating the economies they are placed in.
Providing fresh produce year round is not the only benefit of Urban Produce’s cutting-edge greenhouses. In the long term, this technology could provide a means of feeding a growing population with a shrinking amount of resources. As developments and urban centers encroach on agricultural land, advancements in greenhous-es and hydroponic technologies will be all the more necessary, with Urban Produce leading the charge.
agcircle | 7
CAMPUS BUZZ
Many students decide to get involved in their ma-jor or department. Some even choose to get in-volved with their college. A select group of stu-
dents hold positions to represent the university as a whole. Jacob Rogers is an agricultural business major and de-
cided to get involved in Associated Students Inc. (ASI) during his senior year. He is the Chief of Staff where he leads the Executive Cabinet and assists the ASI President. Throughout the school year, he has been part of numer-ous committees and involved in the ASI Facilities Master Plan, the University Master Plan, and the voter registra-tion drive. “The largest benefit that I experience within my role is the opportunity to serve Cal Poly students by having a seat at the table where decisions are made and ensuring that the voice of students is heard,” he said.
Jacob said many of his strengths that aid in this position can be attributed to his roots. “I firmly believe that, on average, individuals who come from an agricultural back-ground possess a strong work ethic that allow them to be successful in anything they do. This work ethic has allowed me to push myself toward success, and although I do not believe that I have achieved success, I am approaching my goal every day,” he said.
In addition to Jacob’s leadership, Nicole Billington is the Chair of the ASI Board of Directors. The agricultural business major has enjoyed getting involved in ASI. In this position, Nicole “supervises the 24-member elected body, manages the policy agenda for ASI Student Government’s legislative body, and serves as one of three corporate offi-cers with signing and decision making authority for the corporation,” she said.
Nicole decided to run for the Chair position after be-ing elected to the Board of Directors. “I ran for Chair of the Board because I believed that, although I would have worked hard to be an effective Board member, I had skills that would allow me to help the 24 other Board members be successful. To me, that seemed like more impactful ser-vice and a better use of my skills,” she said.
This position in ASI is setting Nicole apart from her peers. “By the time I graduate, I will have overseen an over $13 million budgeting process, managed a complex policy agenda for a legislative and corporate body, and advocated on behalf of more than 19,000 students,” she said.
CAFES students take leadership to the next level
Leading the way
STORY BY RYLIN LINDAHLPHOTOS PROVIDED BY ASI
8 | Spring 2015
Jake Odello has been elected as Vice Chair of the University Union Advisory Board in his senior year at Cal Poly. He is an agricultural science major with an agricultural business concentration. Student gov-ernment has always been a passion of his and he has continued that passion in college. “My first position [of leadership was] held was in 2005. I have held one every year since then to date; 2015 marked my tenth year of doing student government,” he said.
The duties of his position vary year to year de-pending on what projects are going on at the time. Jake spends most of his time collecting data from students about the Facilities Master Plan. “My job is really about how we can be better. All of the logis-tics behind it, the communication, the outreach, the marketing for it, is something that I do. My goal this year is to get a lot of input. So then when I leave, I say this is all the data, now go do it!” he said.
ASI is filled with students from a variety of col-leges and majors. Many of these students are from the College of Agriculture, Food & Environmental Sciences. They are taking the knowledge from their classes to lead our university and it will pay off in their future career. “Getting involved with ASI gives students the opportunity to learn, grow, and experience Cal Poly in a way unrivaled by any other opportunity that you will have at Cal Poly,” Jacob Rogers said.
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Since 1776, Greek letter organizations have been recognized as a prominent tradition in college culture. Brotherhood, sister-
hood, professional development and mem-orable social events are a few of the makings chapters across the country consider as a part of their collegiate legacy.
For several Cal Poly organizations, Greek life is founded upon enriching agriculture lead-ership beyond social agendas. Alpha Gamma Rho (AGR), Sigma Alpha and Alpha Zeta rep-resent a few of the chapters contributing to ag-riculture “going Greek.”
For AGR, the largest agriculturally-con-nected fraternity on Cal Poly’s campus, the link to the industry can be seen in the orga-nization’s history. Cal Poly’s chapter began in 1974 and is based on both social and profes-sional platforms. The 98-member AGR is a fraternity within Interfraternity Council, and a professional club chartered through the Col-lege of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences (CAFES).
“This makes us one of the most unique
Greek organizations on campus,” Brad Kurtz, AGR President and soil science major, said. “AGR members have the opportunity to attend all manner of social events in the Greek community, but also have the bene-fit of engaging in professional events based in agriculture.”
Although the organization is technical-ly open to all majors, AGR is encouraged by its national office to become involved with CAFES by recruiting primarily agri-culture majors, or those with strong roots in the industry.
In addition to its member demographics, AGR is connected to agriculture by way of pre-paring members to be leaders within the in-dustry, largely thanks to an extensive statewide alumni network.
“Alumni speak at our meetings about their industries and careers or lead us on tours of their businesses and facilities,” Kurtz explained. “We provide networking op-portunities for our brothers such as our alumni golf weekend for undergrads to net-
work with successful professionals in an informal setting.”
Additionally, AGR sends members across the country to seminars and conferences for further training in leadership, business and re-cruitment skills.
Similar to AGR is Sigma Alpha, a profession-al sorority on campus established in 1990. They too, maintain a strong connection to agricul-ture through involvement in CAFES as well as community service and outreach. Many of the 35 Sigma Alpha sisters hold leadership posi-tions throughout CAFES in clubs such as Lati-nos in Agriculture and Collegiate FFA.
According to Kayla Manning, Sigma Alpha Parliamentarian and agricultural science ju-nior, educating the public about where their food comes from is what sets them apart as a sorority. One way they accomplish this is through the Ag in the Classroom program.
“A group of our sisters go to an elementary school and teach children about the agricul-ture industry and the role it plays in their lives,” Manning said about the program. “We do so
CAMPUS BUZZ
AGRICULTURE
STORY BY KENNA LEWISPHOTOS PROVIDED BY AGR & SIGMA ALPHA
goes GREEK
10 | Spring 2015
by organizing games and other activities for the younger kids to engage in and learn about agriculture in a fun way.”
The sorority also aims to connect with the community through participation in public ag-ricultural education at Farm City Night during the SLO Farmers’ Market and by volunteering at Growing Grounds, a wholesale nursery pro-viding horticulture therapy to adults with se-vere mental illness.
“[At Growing Grounds], we mainly help with the day-to-day activities that help [it] run, such as pruning trees and organizing the general equipment,” Manning said.
Like AGR, Sigma Alpha aims to prepare its members for successful careers by promot-ing professional development and leadership among its sisters.
Alpha Zeta, another professional club with-in CAFES, shares similarities with both AGR and Sigma Alpha. The club is comprised pri-marily of agriculture students and focuses on networking with local agricultural pro-fessionals as well as Cal Poly alumni. Like Sigma Alpha, Alpha Zeta strives to reach out to community members by partak-ing in local events and also volunteering at Growing Grounds.
While Alpha Zeta shares commonalities with the others, it maintains a diverse membership. “We are a unique fraternity because we are coed, and that gives us a different perspective,”
Davis Neary, Alpha Zeta Membership Educa-tor and dairy science junior, said.
Although each Greek organization shows their connection to agriculture in a different way, all aim to produce leaders within the in-dustry. Networking, career preparation and
community service are a few of the under-takings aligning these organizations with the tradition of Greek life. But it is the members’ backgrounds and dedication to fueling the industry that give an agricultural twist to a long-standing tradition.
agcircle | 11
Soaring to New Heights
Pasadena, Calif. is home to America’s annual Rose Parade – a celebration more than a
century old. This festival of flowers is aired on national television and viewed by millions of people every New Year’s Day. After 67 years of participation in the parade, this year marked the first time Cal Poly Rose Float took home the coveted Lath-
rop K. Leishman Trophy for the Most Beautiful Non-Commercial Float.
“[Thanks to the] artistic skill and expertise of the Cal Poly Floral De-sign Team, [we were able to] create beautiful arrangements for the float,” Young Choi, landscape architect stu-dent who helped work on the 2015 float, said. “This is the first time we have ever won the award, which is a
huge honor.”As an entirely student-run project,
Cal Poly President Jeffery D. Arm-strong calls it the “epitome of Learn by Doing.” A joint effort, each year the two universities, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly, Pomo-na, work together to create the float. About 70 student volunteers from all majors carry the Cal Poly Rose Float
CAMPUS BUZZ
STORY BY SONJA ESCHENBURGPHOTOS BY NICOLE BILLINGTON & YOUNG CHOI
CAL POLY UNIVERSITIES WIN BIG WITH
ROSE FLOAT
12 | Spring 2015
team while community members are en-couraged to participate in the float prepara-tions as well.
According to Choi, the float chassis is de-signed to be split.
“One-half stays on the SLO campus during spring, summer and fall and is [lat-er] transported to the Pomona campus in mid-October to continue construction,” Choi explained. “[From there on] the SLO team members [travel] to Pomona every Saturday. All team members collaborate with their counterparts for a successful
float each year.”The design process starts as soon as the
previous year’s parade is complete. A con-cept contest is held right away to find the new float design for the upcoming year and anyone is allowed to submit a concept. Com-mittee members then pick the best one and go from there to create a more refined and detailed design.
The 2015 parade theme was “Inspiring Sto-ries”, with the winning Cal Poly design be-ing “Soaring Stories.” This design depicted a fairytale castle and a griffin springing from
agcircle | 13
the inside of a book. The float exceeded previous entries in
quality because of several new technologi-cal advances. From animated features such as the flags, the griffin’s wings, the castle’s drawbridge and a flickering candle flame, to a back wall made of living flowers in-stead of the traditionally hand-cut flowers, this float was unlike any other. To top it off, this same 18-by-55-foot float also featured a running waterfall.
Though the Cal Poly Rose Float’s costs are funded mainly through Associated Students Inc., a good portion of the materials are do-nated. “RainBird has [been generous] with irrigation supplies and California Organic Fertilizer with fertilizer,” Choi said.
Cal Poly does not grow all of the flowers used on the float, but does operate its own flower field on campus. The university grows the statice, strawflowers and marigolds used on the float. Additionally, this year more than 10,000 roses, 6,000 gerberas, 4,000 iris-es and various other flowers were used for float arrangements. The building crew tries to keep the materials unique by utilizing unique features such as grapefruit rinds, sea-weed, cranberries and different seeds.
The Cal Poly Rose Float has won 55 awards as of January 1, 2015, and students have no intention of slowing down. As participants gear up for the 2016 Rose Parade, high hopes remain for another successful year.
CAMPUS BUZZ
14 | Spring 2015
History in the Making
Have you ever wondered what you can get with $20 million? An island,
endless sports cars, or even a tub full of Harry Winston diamonds are all among the long list of lux-uries. Why not dream? For Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food & Environmental Scienc-es (CAFES), this dream became a reality.
In November 2014, Cal Poly announced CAFES received the largest cash donation in the university’s history. The generous donors were Cal Poly alums, Peter and Mary Beth Oppenheimer.
Mr. Oppenheimer graduated with an agricultural business degree in 1985 and Mrs. Oppen-heimer graduated in 1986 with a degree in home economics, concentrating in interior design. Peter later went on to become the Senior Vice President and CFO of Apple Inc. He spent 18 years at Apple before retiring in September 2014.
“The generosity of Peter and Mary Beth Oppenheimer is ex-traordinary, and will help en-hance CAFES’ Learn by Doing experiences for students for years to come,” said Dean Andrew J. Thulin. “The facilities will be built over the next several years with input from the Oppenheimers as well as students, staff and faculty.”
The donation will help pay for several CAFES projects. Cal Poly will be building an Agricultural Events Center on campus where the university will hold livestock shows, industry events and con-ferences. The expo center will be built in place of the current beef
unit and will be able to hold more than 2,500 people. Using this money, the university will also be building an Equestrian Pavil-ion to hold various events for the equine program.
“Our current facility is func-tional. But with a new arena, we may be able to host English shows in addition to our West-ern show, which would both in-crease recognition for Cal Poly and establish our team as a real competitor,” Laurel Thomson, a fourth-year student and Cal Poly Equestrian Team member, said.
In addition to the Agricultur-al Events Center and Equestrian Pavilion, the university will be building a farm store to hold all of the Cal Poly made products.
“Most students don’t know that Cal Poly sells eggs, meat, and tons of fresh produce,” Mary Merseth, a third-year nutrition major, said.
“My favorite [Cal Poly prod-uct] is definitely the ice cream,” Merseth went on to say, “but I’ve been really wanting to try some of the other foods. I’m excited to be able to easily find them at the store.”
With this new store, students and community members will be able to purchase products made on campus under one roof.
Lastly, a portion of the dona-tion will go towards the Cal Poly Scholars scholarship program, Cal Poly’s food pantry, meal vouchers and modernizing other current facilities.
In a previous interview with Mustang News, Oppenheimer said, “I think what’s really im-
portant to Mary Beth and me is that we know that the ex-perience that we had 30 years ago was in part due to what people who came before us did for the university, and we very much wanted to give back, so that future students could have an even better experience.”
Although this gift will cov-er a vast number of oppor-tunities, this donation is more than just new buildings and programs. It’s establishing new experiences for current and future students who will have the opportuni-ty to call Cal Poly their home and continue the Learn by Doing legacy.
CAFES plans to update facilities with the help of a $20 million donation
“[It] will help enhance
CAFES’ Learn by Doing
experiences for students
for years to come.”
ANDREW J. THULINDean of the College of Agriculture, Food
& Environmental Sciences
STORY BY HANNAH BEELERPHOTOS PROVIDED BY THE OPPENHEIMER FAMILY
agcircle | 15
Cal Poly’s Tomato Mania event has tak-en place for the past 15 years. Tomato Mania is an enterprise project for agri-
culture students and a weekend of garden en-joyment to the public. This event may be new for some, but it has been an annual tradition for many.
A team of six students carry out the enter-prise and are in charge of the project from seed to sale. Choosing specialized varieties, grow-ing the young vines and marketing the plants is all part of the course description. This small group of students spends the entire winter quarter planning, troubleshooting and coordi-nating the Tomato Mania event, which occurs in the spring.
Every team member offers their own unique skill set. “This enterprise project will definitely benefit my future in the horticulture industry through hands-on experience in growing and selling tomatoes,” Dawn Mones said. Mones is the Tomato Mania enterprise project Head Grower and an environmental horticulture sci-ence student concentrating in greenhouse and nursery production.
The enterprise team propagates the plants
and sells the garden-ready tomato plants to the public. The event initially began with an original Cal Poly tomato, the Murray Smith. Named after a renown Cal Poly speech in-structor, the Murray Smith was developed at Cal Poly and has always been a popular sell. Its great reputation revolves around the vivid col-or, small seeds and adaptation to California’s Central Coast climate.
Often misinterpreted as a vegetable, toma-toes have been thought of as America’s favorite garden fruit for generations. Tomato Mania at-tracts many garden enthusiasts featuring any-thing but ordinary plants. While traditional heirloom tomatoes and other common variet-ies can be found, many eye-catching hybrid va-rieties ranging in color from purple to orange are available for purchase. These are not typical grocery store varietals. Besides color, these ex-clusive varieties are known for their superb taste and texture.
“We are looking forward to seeing many new and familiar faces during the plant sale. I know the public will be impressed with our extraordinary selection of tomato varieties,” Gage Willey, Tomato Mania enterprise project
member and agricultural and environmental plant science student, said.
This year, students have chosen many new varieties and past customer favorites to sell. Murray Smith, Beefsteak, Green Zebra, Black Krim, Artisan Purple Bumble Bee and many heirloom and hybrid tomatoes make up the 65 different varieties for sale at this year’s event.
“The average person purchases about four or five [plants] because we have so many unique varieties and they want to try as many as possi-ble,” Derek Toschi, environmental horticulture science student and Tomato Mania enterprise project member, said.
Tomatoes are marketed for $6 a plant and en-terprise students are known to profit even after their expenses are paid.
The strong community support for Cal Poly and Tomato Mania make for a great turnout at the sale. Tomato season begins in spring and extends through the summer months. This year, customers can support this unique enterprise on Saturday, April 11 and Sun-day, April 12, at the Poly Plant Shop on Cal Poly’s campus.
CAMPUS BUZZ
STORY BY JOSEPH DOMINGUEZPHOTOS PROVIDED BY TOMATO MANIA ENTERPRISE
Tomato Mania
16 | Spring 2015
If you’ve ever walked through the second floor hallway of Cal Poly’s Building 10, you’ve undoubtedly seen Dr. Bill Kellogg working
tirelessly in his office – his desk facing the door, ready to welcome any and all visitors. Although his time as head of the Agricultural Education and Communication Department at Cal Poly is coming to an end, he leaves behind an unrivaled legacy and one of the most successful depart-ments in the College of Agriculture, Food, & Environmental Sciences (CAFES).
Dr. Kellogg’s dedication and enthusiasm for teaching makes him a role model to students and faculty. For the past 32 years he has taught at Cal Poly, and for six years prior he taught high school agriculture. His success as a teacher stems directly from his commitment and loyalty to his students.
“The best part of my job and my favorite mem-ories are of working with students,” Dr. Kellogg said. “I’m most proud of the students that have graduated in our program and the success that they are experiencing in their lives right now. They are successful in industry, they are leaders in the teaching profession, and as a teacher you
like to think that maybe you had a small part in that.”
Many successes of the agricultural education program, its faculty and students are attributable to Dr. Kellogg. “Dr. Kellogg is somebody that you want to strive to be,” Jake Odello, a third-year agricultural education student, said. “I gen-
uinely try to make time for people and be there for people, just like he does. Knowing him, I’m just going to be a better, genuine person.”
Dr. Kellogg’s many relationships with people across campus are not by accident. He doesn’t just see faces as another student or another co-worker; he remembers people’s names, what they do, even their birthdays. “Dr. Kellogg has been able to establish some really wonderful re-lationships with people all over campus,” J. Scott Vernon, an agricultural education and commu-nication professor who has worked with Dr. Kel-logg for more than 30 years, said. “The carpen-ters, the plumbers, the painters; all the people who help run this place that are important to the success of Cal Poly, but aren’t in the public’s view; Dr. Kellogg has made a strong network with all of them.”
With so many close friendships, Dr. Kellogg has built a devoted team within the Agricul-tural Education and Communication Depart-ment and CAFES. It is well known behind his hard-working, organized and dependable ex-terior is a dedicated prankster and lover of all things concrete.
one of
CAL POLY’S MVPS
RETIRES
“The best part of my job and
my favorite memories are
of working with students.”
DR. BILL KELLOGGAgricultural Education & Communication
Department Head
STORY BY DIANE MEYERPHOTOS PROVIDED BY CAFES STUDENT COUNCIL & BROCK CENTER
agcircle | 17
“His pranks are the funniest,” Donetta Ros-son, the Administrative Support Coordina-tor for the Agricultural Education and Com-munication Department and a close friend to Dr. Kellogg and his family, said. “I re-member helping him ice a birthday cake for some co-workers that was actually made out of concrete.”
Jerry Clark, a past professor in agricultural education, fondly recalls falling victim to his pranks as well.
“When I first came to the department, I found an actual urine test kit in my mailbox accompa-nied by official paperwork indicating the step-by-step process for acquiring the sample and to what administrative office it was to be delivered,” Clark said. “Good thing I took time to question it or I would have been quite embarrassed stand-ing there at some receptionist’s desk in adminis-tration, proud of my first ‘assignment’ completed and submitted in a timely fashion.”
Despite his never-ending pranks and sense of humor, Dr. Kellogg is diligent and holds himself and others to the highest standards. He is ex-tremely hard working and renowned for his or-ganizational skills, namely his complicated “BK Filing System”.
“Nobody knows what those numbers mean, but he does,” Robert Flores, agricul-tural education professor, said. “He’s very or-ganized. If he does something it’s going to be planned out and designed correctly. He doesn’t cut corners, not just with concrete, but with everything.”
When Dr. Kellogg first became a faculty mem-ber at Cal Poly, he already had a plan to be suc-cessful. “I remember as a student watching cer-tain faculty helping and working alongside the students,” Dr. Kellogg said. “They didn’t have to do it, but wow, they’re making that student’s ex-perience at Cal Poly a fun, successful one. When I came back as a faculty member I was very in-volved, especially with Poly Royal.”
Dr. Kellogg has dedicated the past ten years to Poly Royal, now known as Open House. He is the only faculty member to have served as an ad-visor for the Ag Pavilion committee for the en-tire ten years it has been in place. He is also the designated safety guru for CAFES. He has taught CPR classes for the past 25 years, and fire safety for ten years. For more than 20 years, Dr. Kellogg taught the Advanced Ag Mechanics class in the BioResource and Agricultural Engineering De-partment. All of these activities are very hands on and exemplify the Learn by Doing model, which Dr. Kellogg is very passionate about.
“I’ve always wanted to instill the Learn by Doing philosophy in my classes because that is the right way to learn, with students ex-periencing their learning,” Dr. Kellogg said. “Cal Poly has most impacted me through the Learn by Doing model and philosophy. I embraced it as a student and as a teacher. Cal Poly is a Learn by Doing institution … and is a wonderful school. We’ve had excel-lent students who have made a difference in the world.”
Though Dr. Kellogg is retiring, he has been a true role model to students and faculty and has prepared the Agricultural Education and Communication Department for future gener-ations of success. “The impact of Dr. Kellogg has reached thousands and thousands of students. And that legacy will continue, even when stu-dents come to campus in the next generation.
They may not know exactly who he was, but they’ll benefit from the work that he did,” Ver-non shared.
Dr. Kellogg has worked everyday with pas-sion and humility. He has done so much for CAFES, especially behind the scenes, and nev-er asks for praise or gratitude. “I don’t think people know just how much that man does for CAFES,” Rosson said. “He does things that you don’t even realize he does, they just get done. He always goes the extra mile to help people, especially students.”
Dr. Kellogg will always hold a special place in CAFES, and students and faculty plan to uphold the legacy he has built.
All of Dr. Kellogg’s hard work and effort has prepared the Agricultural Education and Communication Department for future suc-cess. Though he hasn’t planned out his retire-ment yet, he is still planning for the future of the department - he and his wife, Debbie, are retiring together. Debbie teaches reading in-tervention at the kindergarten and first-grade levels at Monterey Road Elementary School in Atascadero, Calif. They are both looking for-ward to spending more time with their children and grandchildren.
“We’re going to miss him quite a bit. But, for those of us that continue on here, we should be a living testament to the work he did here,” Dr. Flores said. “If we follow his example, we have nothing to worry about because he has prepared us. We’re going to thrive, there’s no question about that.”
Even those outside CAFES experienced Dr. Kellogg’s best attributes. “Dr. Kellogg is a true professional,” Dr. Bob Detweiler said, former in-terim dean of the School of Education. “He is a dependable, experienced stalwart in the school’s administration. Cal Poly’s Ag Ed program is strong largely because Bill Kellogg made it strong. I laud him for his accomplishments and thank him for his positive contribution to so many agri-culture teachers across the state over many years. Well done, Bill.”
CAMPUS BUZZ
“I remember helping him ice a birthday cake
for some co-workers that was
actually made out of concrete.”
DONETTA ROSSONAgricultural Education & Communication Department Administrative Coordinator
“Cal Poly’s ag ed program is strong largely
because Bill Kellogg made
it strong.”DR. BOB DETWEILER
Former Interim Dean of the School of Education
18 | Spring 2015
Treasure for the FutureIn 1988, Cal Poly students posed a daunt-
ing question: How will agricultural prac-tices change over the next 30 years? These
students, and many others from the univer-sity, gathered to bury a time capsule full of their predictions. Fast forward 25 years and find countless industry advancements, new majors, buildings and thousands of Cal Poly agriculture graduates. On November 8, 2014, the College of Agriculture, Food & Environmental Sciences (CAFES) student council officer team, along with CAFES Dean Andrew J. Thulin, President of the uni-versity’s Monterey Bay Alumni chapter Dean Callendar, and an audience of students, staff
and alumni joined near Campus Market to unearth the forecasts from 1988.
After the time capsule was located and opened, copper scrolls inscribed with agricultural student expectations were read aloud. These predictions ranged from the types of technology integrat-ed into agriculture, to the change in how buildings and products in the industry are officially named.
Tyler Harris, a current first-year agricul-tural business student who attended the event, was surprised by the prediction’s ac-curacy. “I thought a lot of them were spot on. Many talked about water and the impact it
has on the industry. In fact, the drought we are currently going through was predicted,” Harris said.
Harris also stated the event made students ponder about how agriculture will look in another 25 years. Harris believes “there will be more agricultural jobs in technology and engineering and there will be less labor in the fields.”
Eleanor Harlan, freshman agricultural business student, considered how agricul-ture, food and environmental science will transform in the future. “The technology in agriculture will keep advancing,” she said. “Since the time capsule has been buried, we have developed technologically in more ways than the people of the time could ever imagine. I’m excited to see what new advanc-es the future will bring and how that will change the industry.” Like Harris, Harlan be-lieves jobs will be different in the industry, but greatly needed.
At the event, a student representative from each agricultural club read predictions of what their club anticipates agriculture to be in 25 years. These will be placed back into the time capsule and buried during the 2015 Cal Poly Open House festivi-ties for future students in 2039 to uncover. The capsule is currently on display in the CAFES Dean’s Office in the Agricultural Sciences Building.
Only time will tell how agriculture will evolve in the next 30 years. However, CAFES Associate Dean Richard Cavalleto believes the future for agriculture will remain strong. “As for agriculture as an industry and stu-dents that go into studying agriculture as a profession, there will be no shortage for peo-ple to have that knowledge and that under-standing of the industry and to find careers in it,” Cavalleto said.
CAMPUS BUZZ
STORY BY DANI DIELEPHOTOS PRODVIDED BY CAFES STUDENT COUNCIL
agcircle | 19
Christine Maguire of Rin-conada Dairy in Santa Margarita, Calif., wanted
to try something different. Some might consider her business venture extremely different, and her dream, a lofty one.
Maguire dreamed of having a sheep dairy in 1998, which in-spired her and her husband, Jim, to purchase their first sheep. Soon after, they turned their car-port into a milking parlor and the business began. In late 1999, they relocated to the Santa Mar-garita area and had 16 sheep on an acre and a half. From dream to reality, Rinconada Dairy has been in operation for 11 years.
California is home to numer-ous goat dairies but Rinconada Dairy is only the second sheep dairy in the state.
Maguire had an interest in farming before they bought their own sheep. They had roots in Oregon as part owners of a farm with Nubian goats. Their neighbors had sheep, which got Christine thinking about ex-panding their farm and goals.
“I’m a spinner,” Maguire said. “The thought of an animal I can get wool, meat and milk from appealed to me. I also wanted an
animal I could wrestle with if I needed to,” she said.
East Friesian sheep, which come from the same part of Germany as the Holstein Frie-sian dairy cow, were the first breed used at Rinconada when the dairy began. In 2005 and 2006, they decided to introduce the Lacaune breed’s genetics to the herd. By crossing these two, they were able to increase milk production.
“Before, we were milking 154 sheep max. This year we are getting the same milk pro-duction out of 65 to 70 sheep,” Maguire said.
As the flock grew, the Ma-guire’s concern for protecting their investment grew too. Deal-ing with predators is inevitable with a large flock. In the area, the most common predators the Maguire’s had dealt with bobcats, mountain lions, bears and even eagles. Two years ago, they purchased two Anatolian Shepherds to combat predators. “One year, three bears had to be put down. I got the dogs to keep the wildlife safe,” Maguire explained. Since the shepherds have joined the dairy family, they haven’t had to put a single
wild animal down. For Christine, being a part
of an agricultural commu-nity has been very fulfilling. “Cheese makers are very nice people,” Maguire said. She also said it is nice to work so hard for something and have your work appreciated.
While it has been enjoyable, it has not always been easy. With the drought being so prevalent in the western states, feed costs have risen which has raised cheese prices for the consumers.
“Feed costs have tripled and the worst part is I can’t raise my
prices any more than I already have,” Maguire said.
To save costs this year, the Maguire’s cut back two-thirds of their herd and are simplify-ing their cheese lineup. They also decreased goat milking down to 50 head. While the current economy makes it dif-ficult to keep doing what they enjoy, they believe things are slowly improving.
Rinconada Dairy cheeses can be found in many retailers in San Luis Obispo County, in-cluding Nature’s Touch and 15 Degrees C in Templeton, Calif.
Rinconada DairyLOCAL
STORY/PHOTOS BY KAITY CARPENTER
20 | Spring 2015
The Art of Wine Bottling
Many people know how the grape goes from the vine to the barrel. But few learn about a process just as extensive in wine production: bottling. At Chamis-
al Vineyards in Edna Valley, the wine bottling process is taken very seriously.
“The wine doesn’t magically get into the bottle,” said Mary Stump, a Lab Technician at Chamisal Vineyards.
In fact, some winemakers would argue wine bottling is the most important part of the winemaking process. Because of the delicate procedure of bottling, winemakers are very hands-on with the wine, from putting the wine in tanks and barrels, up until when the wine gets bottled.
Chamisal Vineyards, part of the Crimson Wine group,
prides itself on producing wines ideal for the Edna Valley: Pi-not Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah and Grenache, Pinot Grís and Rosé. Before bottling the wine, Chamisal makes sure the wine is ready to be put into a bottle.
“We try to do non-interventionalist winemaking,” Michael Callahan, Chamisal Assistant Winemaker, said. “When we’re getting the wine ready for bottling, we’re constantly checking things such as microbial stability, heat and cold stability, dis-solved oxygen and CO2 levels.”
These variables are important when considering how the wine goes from the barrel to the bottle. One tiny misstep can alter the taste and the shelf-life of the wine. Callahan says he could take somebody 100 different directions when talking
STORY BY HARRISON REILLYPHOTOS BY JORDAN DUNN
agcircle | 21
about the process of bottling because of the lev-el of detail in every facet.
“Sometimes we don’t need to do a lot of in-tervention or adjustment prior to bottling,” Callahan said. “More or less, we are on a path-way where we are taking a lot of steps to assure quality and consistency.”
Once the winemaker decides the wine is ready for bottling, the winery contracts with a bottling service. Some of the larger wineries such as Gallo or Trinchero have their own bot-tling facilities, but most of the wineries in Cal-ifornia contract out to have their wine bottled.
Chamisal uses a wine bottling company lo-cal to them, The Bottle Meister. Operated out of the back of a semi-trailer truck, the state-of-the-art equipment services 85 wineries a year, and not just on the Central Coast; the Bottle Meister bottles from Napa to Temec-ula. Each of the company’s crews has a mini-mum experience of 1,400,000 cases (one case is twelve bottles).
After the wine is ready, it is pumped from the tanks to the bottling truck. The fillers and si-phon hoses are sanitized to make sure the wine isn’t altered through the hoses.
Once the wine reaches the truck, the bottles are put on a conveyor belt, blown with nitrogen (while simultaneously blowing out dust parti-cles), filled, corked and finally the bottles are sent to the labeler at the end of the truck.
The process goes slowly initially as the bot-tling technicians adjust to make sure the ma-chine runs smoothly, checking each bottle’s labels, fill height, foils and other specific qual-ity control checks. It is extremely important as little oxygen as possible is let into the wine.
The technicians need to make sure enough ni-trogen is being blown into the bottle, the fill heights are correct, no oxygen is being leaked into the bottle and there is a “vacuum”, or negative pressure on the corks, once bottles are sealed. It needs to be perfect and to the winemaker’s specifications.
“Quality is always first,” said Andy Jones, Bottling Line Manager at Bottle Meister. “We sparge the bottle with nitrogen and use a vacu-um that sucks out all of the dust particles.”
“We do a lot of visual quality control, in-cluding making sure all labels, foils and corks are running to our specifications,” Callahan said. “We run cork moisture tests and we do torque tests for screw caps to make sure the screw capper is creating the proper seal. We are constantly doing packaging trials to assess our materials and vendors are the best and there’s not something else out there superior to our current packaging.”
Once the bottling is finished, the pallets are stored in a cellar until they are ready to be sold to the public. The bottle time can vary greatly depending on the winemaker’s preference.
Many factors go into bottle time, including what variety of wine is being bottled. But gen-erally, the bottle times boil down to an eco-nomic versus quality issue. Some wineries wine will sell no matter what the bottle time is, so it is to their economic benefit to get the wine on the shelf as soon as possible. It is not unheard of to get wine bottled and immediately put it on the shelf at tasting rooms and stores.
At Chamisal, the general bottle time for their estate wine is around six months. “That’s a con-scious decision, because our wines tend to be
LOCAL
“The wine doesn’t magically get
into the bottle.”MARY STUMP
Lab Technician at Chamisal Vineyards
22 | Spring 2015
pretty age-worthy,” Callahan said. And because of their cross flow filtration system, their wines typically do not show as much bottle shock (a temporary condition in wine where the wine’s flavors are muted or disjointed), making the wine’s turn around to shelf even faster.
Bottling is an operation spread out through the year. Chamisal typically bottles four times a year. Their early bottling in January is usu-ally for their stainless steel Chardonnay and “Califa” (meaning “prettiest one,” represent-ing the best barrels of the vintage) Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Callahan is particularly happy with the stain-less steel Chardonnay, saying “it’s a pretty cool wine” and “although it’s not an estate wine, it has been a huge success.”
Chamisal will do a bottling in the early sum-mer for their Syrah Grenache programs and finally bottle their estate wine usually right be-fore harvest or right after harvest.
Chamisal takes pride in their careful bottling process, making sure every possible variable is monitored each step of the way. Their goal is to make a wine that’s representative of the Central Coast, which is why Chamisal likes to hire stu-dents straight out of Cal Poly and harvest the majority of their grapes in Edna Valley.
“Edna Valley has just over 30 wineries, and with a small appellation such as ours, it is easy to take a lot of pride in the Chamisal wines, and how we represent our appellation.” Callahan said. “I’m really proud of what I’ve seen and where things are going.”
“I’m really proud of what I’ve seen and where things
are going.”MICHAEL CALLAHAN
Winemaker at Chamisal Vineyards
agcircle | 23
Farming Begins with Family
Farming, Food and Fine Art. A perfect title for Karla S. Cham-
ber’s cookbook because it sums up her family’s farming operation in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Nestled between two rivers, Stahlbush Island Farms is a certified sustainable farm and food processor guid-ed by its traditional family values. Thirty years ago, newlyweds Bill and Karla Cham-bers, brought ideas to life by producing quality and nutritious foods with careful attention to stewardship.
“I’d say we’re a small family pumpkin farm,” Joe Chambers, the youngest of four siblings, replied with a confident smile when asked how he describes his family’s business to a stranger. “It’s the crop that got us started.”
While pumpkin and sugar beet seeds started the farm, thirty years of innovation
and listening to consumer needs led to sell-ing frozen and pureed fruits and veggies on a global scale. “Stahlbush Island Farms creates and builds most of our own ma-chinery for harvesting and processing in addition to generating all the electricity the farm needs,” Joe said. “Most people do one or more of those things, we’re able to do them all.”
Katie Chambers, the eldest daughter, shared an example of how the farm rep-resents a closed-loop cycle. “Thirty per-cent of the corn is edible and 70 percent is byproduct. We’re able to convert all of the byproduct into electricity with the biogas facility. It creates methane which we’re able to put into the combined heat and power unit and create electricity. We can power the processing facility because we’re pro-ducing more energy than we need.” The
process also creates an organic fertilizer, hot water that is used for equipment san-itation and hot air to dry the farm’s pump-kin seeds. “Nothing is going to waste,” Katie concluded.
Since 1985, the farm was home for all four children Carl, Katie, Ellen and Joe Cham-bers. Each Chambers child remembers eating pumpkin, squash, corn and berries beyond their liking as trucks brought boun-tiful produce in from harvest. In respect to their age, all the Chambers siblings flocked south to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, to pursue a college education.
Katie and Carl are now fully integrated into the farm operations. Carl studied agri-business and graduated in 2010, and Katie graduated from the same program in 2011. Ellen graduated in 2014 with a degree in
INDUSTRY
STORY BY BROCK CENTER STAFF PHOTOS PROVIDED BY STAHLBUSH ISLAND FARMS
24 | Spring 2015
mechanical engineering, and Joe has an-other year in the agricultural and environ-mental plant sciences program.
“Cal Poly’s definitely the best in the west! Carl started it [the Cal Poly sibling tradi-tion], we found it, and we all liked it and San Luis Obispo is pretty close to a vaca-tion spot,” Joe said.
Parents Karla and Bill Chambers hold their brood to the “Two-Year Rule”. The siblings all have an opportunity to join the farm as employees following a two-year stint working outside Stahlbush Island Farms. Implementing their roles is not tak-en lightly and the outside experience grants insights to corporate structure, customer relations, retail services and a new perspec-tive on business.
Another part of Stahlbush Island Farms’ success is a nod toward food safety and answering to strict quality and safety mea-sures. There is an entire team of food safety and quality control employees with micro-biology degrees who oversee Stahlbush’s food production.
Katie said, “We go through all of the stan-dard audits and we choose to go through one of the most rigorous audits in the in-dustry, Safe Quality Food (SQF) Level III, recognized by the Global Food Safety Ini-tiative (GFSI).
agcircle | 25
“We consistently score in their highest percentile every year and that’s a challenge but we deal with food safety every day and it’s the most important piece of the puzzle to ensure we’re following good practices.”
Safety may be at the forefront, but at the core of Stahlbush Island Farms is the Chambers family. Working with family can be considered a great challenge and an even greater reward. Joe said, “The best part is it’s a family. The worst part, is it’s our fam-ily.” While family farms are the patchwork of agricultural history, not all function as well as the Chambers. The deep-rooted re-spect for one another and their attributes prove that cooperation can determine the family’s success.
“All four of us are pretty strong-minded people,” Joe continued. “We’re definitely an exception; we enjoy working together and it’s something that takes work and under-standing everyone’s personalities, and ev-eryone’s needs. And it’s something we do a fairly good job of considering.”
The farm has humbly accumulated ac-colades in all areas of business. Beginning in 1997, Stahlbush Island Farms is known as the first farming operation in the Unit-ed States to be certified sustainable by the Food Allliance. Fast forward to 2012 and it was named Sustainable Plant of the Year by
Food Engineering magazine, and Stahlbush Island Farms is the first farm in North America to build a biogas facility for fruit and vegetable byproduct.
Katie said what will keep the family farm moving forward is based on what they started out with. “Our history of embrac-ing new technology, trying to be sustain-able and listening to our consumers really sets us apart.”
From its family values and unique loca-tion, being the first farm in Oregon to uti-lize global positioning system tractors, to the first farm to operate an anaerobic di-gester of its kind, Stahlbush Island Farms is impressive.
“Something that my parents did, that I think has helped the farm, and is one of the reasons the farm is so successful, is they tried be the first at something,” Joe said. “If there’s something new, we’ll give it a shot and decide if it works for us. Being first with a few things has allowed us to enter a couple niche markets that have proven profitable for us over the years.”
Stahlbush Island Farms products, with labels painted by Karla S. Chambers, can be found in Whole Foods and other natural food stores. For a complete list of stores visit www.stahlbush.com.
INDUSTRY
26 | Spring 2015
Home Away from “SLOme”CAFES alumni take their degrees across the country
The term “SLOme” is not one you will find in a dictionary, how-ever, if you ask any Cal Poly student, past or present, they will know the true meaning of this coined phrase. A combination
between San Luis Obispo (SLO) and home, this single word sums up the comforting atmosphere of Cal Poly and SLO that students so quickly long for after graduation.
Countless alumni from Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food &
Environmental Sciences (CAFES) have left the comfort of SLOme and are making their mark throughout the country. Here is an update on a handful of graduates: Jennifer Ray, Melisa Agusto, Carrie Isaacson, Sara Hollenback, and Mandy Brazil. With CAFES having 16 individual majors, 43 clubs and 80 percent of courses involving laboratories or activity sessions, it is easy to see why its alumni are making a difference in the industry.
In August 2013, Jennifer traveled east-bound with the destination of Kansas State University. She is pursuing a mas-ter’s degree in agricultural education and communication.
In Kansas, you can find Jennifer enjoy-ing time with other graduate students, learning in class, conducting research and even teaching classes of her own. De-spite being as far away as Kansas, Jennifer is staying close to her Cal Poly roots by showing what the Learn by Doing philos-ophy means to her.
In addition to being a graduate student, Jennifer is working as a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) at the university.
“One of my duties is teaching an agri-cultural business communication course to students from a variety of agricultural majors and backgrounds,” Ray said. “The
class structure is fun and interactive, as well as challenging.”
While taking a moment to reflect on her journey, it is clear Cal Poly and its faculty were monumental in guiding her towards her present day success.
“Cal Poly prepared me for gradu-ate school by helping me develop skills through classes and on-campus experi-ences,” Ray said. She credits her previous jobs as the Editor-in-Chief of the Brock Center for Agricultural Communication, and as an assistant in the Kennedy Li-brary, for making her a team player.
Ray is now fully immersed in Kansas life, however, San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly will always hold a special place in her heart. “I’m still holding out hope that my career path will lead me back there some day,” Ray said.
After graduating from Cal Poly, Mandy Bra-zil found herself moving to Wisconsin where she currently works as the Genetic Special-ist for American Breeders Service Global, Inc (ABS).
“I consult with dairies throughout the Unit-ed States on identifying opportunities for greater return on genetic investments,” Man-dy said. “I strive to be a resource for our sales team in partnering with customers towards creating profitability and success on their dairy operations.”
ABS Global places an emphasis on group collaboration projects and she was able to apply the knowledge and skills she learned at Cal Poly to her everyday work.
“In my consulting role, it is important for me to be able to deliver a clear and mean-
ingful presentation, but to also provide an interactive session to foster a desire to learn more,” Mandy said.
While at Cal Poly, Mandy credited her involvement in the Dairy Challenge (a collegiate competition in which stu-dents evaluate various aspects of a dairy operation and develop an improvement plan) and being a member of the Cal Poly Dairy Judging Team for helping start her ca-reer in the dairy industry.
“I have been pleasantly surprised to find myself working alongside in the industry with peers I interacted with while grow-ing up,” Mandy said. “You realize how small our agriculture world really is and it makes industry events like fun reunions to catch up with old friends.”
JENNIFER RAYmajor: Agricultural Communications
graduated: June 2013
MANDY BRAZILmajor: Agricultural Communication,
Minors in Agribusiness & Dairy Sciencegraduated: June 2013
STORY BY TREVOR SURROCKPHOTOS PROVIDED BY FEATURED ALUMNI
agcircle | 27
INDUSTRY
Visiting the nation’s historic capital is al-ways an exciting adventure, but Cal Poly alumna Melisa Augusto has the privilege to call Washington, D.C., her home.
Melisa works for the Nation-al Farmers Union and currently serves as the Director of Membership and Marketing.
“National Farmers Union is a member-ship organization that advocates for the economic and social well-being and qual-ity of life of family farmers, ranchers, fish-ermen and consumers,” Melisa said. “We promote sustainable production of food, feed, fiber and fuel and work with our 200,000 member families nationwide to support smart farm policies, educate the public and develop the next generation of farm leaders.”
While at Cal Poly, Melisa was a true ex-ample of an opportunity seeker. She was actively involved in Sigma Alpha, the Col-
lege of Agriculture, Food & Environmental Sciences Student Council, ASI Board of Di-rectors and was the first female president of the Ag Ambassadors.
Between her extracurricular activities and projects in the classroom, Melisa gained valuable hands on experience that prepared her for the working world.
“In one of my final agribusiness classes, we actually worked with a client to devel-op a marketing plan, and that experience has helped me tremendously,” Melisa said. “Learn by Doing is the only way to go!”
Besides being neighbors with the Presi-dent of the United States of America, Wash-ington, D.C., has an abundance of culture to experience and fun activities to take part in. “I love the work that I do,” Melisa said, “I get to live in a city while staying true to my roots in family farming. I feel like every day I am an advocate for my parents and all family farmers.”
Whether it is feeding, nursing baby lambs back to health, sheering, or marketing, Sara is always finding a way to stay busy in Molt, Mont.
Sara works with her husband, Henry, on his family’s sheep ranch where they man-age more than 3,200 ewes.
“Something I have learned since moving to Montana and working on a large ranch-ing operation, is there is no such thing as ‘off the clock,’” Sara said. “Animals depend on you no matter what holiday or time of day it is.”
Like many college students, Sara had no idea what career she wanted to pursue after graduation.
“I tried to take as many different types of classes as possible to spur my inter-est in a specific direction,” Sara said. “Learning from your peers is sometimes the best form of learning. I have realized,
since working, that you never stop learn-ing, and I think Cal Poly instilled that into me.”
Outside of work, Sarah is also learning more about Montana as she travels to her husband’s rodeo competitions.
“It gives me a chance to see more of this beautiful state and meet more fam-ilies within the rodeo world,” Sara said. “I drove through Glacier National Park last summer and it was one of the most amazing places I have ever been to.”
Along with exploring the state, Sara enjoys preparing meals for the ranch employees, photography, and blogging on her website, hollenbeckranch.com.
It is alumni like Sara who combine their degree from Cal Poly with passion for agriculture and turn it into a lifestyle and career.
For Cal Poly alumna Carrie Isaacson, limiting herself to California to pursue her career was not an option. Instead, she decided to pack her warmest jack-et and move to Minneapolis to work at broadhead.
broadhead is a full service marketing agency for which Carrie serves as a Senior Account Executive.
“My day is full of presenting creative and strategic ideas to my clients, researching new products and competitors and making sure my teammates are fully briefed on all projects at hand,” Carrie said.
Starting off in a new career can be chal-lenging for anyone, but Carrie felt prepared for any project that came her way.
“Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing philosophy is the best way to prepare students for the workforce,” Carrie said. “Going in to my first job, I already knew what it was like to manage creative projects with many moving parts.”
Carrie is a great example of alumni who left SLOme to follow their dreams. “Don’t limit yourself to positions only in Califor-nia,” Carrie said. “There are lots of great opportunities across the country.”
CARRIE ISAACSONmajor: Agricultural Science,
Concentration in Animal Science, Minor in Agricultural Communication
graduated: June 2012
MELISSA AUGUSTOmajor: Agricultural Business
graduated: June 2005
SARA HOLLENBECKmajor: Agricultural Business, Minor
in International Ag Policygraduated: June 2008
28 | Spring 2015
Ranching in a State of Regulation
Egg prices in California are drastically rising and ev-eryone is noticing. As of January 1, 2015, Proposi-tion 2 (passed by voters in 2008) has gone into effect.
The new law requires California egg farmers to expand cage sizes for chickens and make expensive renovations to their current farms. Due to this new law, California’s egg prices are likely to increase 10 to 40 percent in 2015.
For California farmers and ranchers, there are always new protocols to adapt to in order to protect the state’s current agriculture production. While some regulations are needed and help to protect the producer, consumer and the environment, this is not always the case. Regula-tions intended for improvement often leave farmers and ranchers with a new law or regulation that is expensive, time consuming and stressful to implement.
California livestock producers are currently in a fight to prevent another costly regulation and most farmers believe it is not needed. The State Water Resources Con-trol Board (SWRCB) recently that made claims graz-ing is a practice may need further regulation. According to the SWRCB, there are more than 120 grazing-related impairments in California and as a result, regulations have been put on the 303(d) list. A list which water
bodies with pollutant levels exceeding protective water quality standards.
The SWRCB believes these impairments are potentially related to grazing and something may need to be done to improve and protect the quality of those waters. The Graz-ing Regulatory Action Project (GRAP) was developed to look into this situation. The project is a collaborative effort of all nine of the regional boards in California. Whether the GRAP committee creates a proposal or regulation, it will be up to the SWRCB to provide approval or disap-proval, and this has many livestock producers concerned.
Kirk Wilbur, Director of Government Regulations at the California Cattlemen’s Association (CCA), and his fellow CCA staff and members, have been working to fight the progression of GRAP. There are many issues they see with the current development of the project to improve grazing.
“The assumptions underlying this GRAP are concerning to the CCA and to our members,” Wilbur said. “We dis-agree with some of the Water Board’s foundational con-cerns on grazing.”
One of the main concerns is the lack of science to sug-gest whether livestock grazing is the actual cause of these impairments or if other wildlife or human causes have
STORY BY KATIE ROBERTIPHOTOS BY ALDEN CALDWELL
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created the problem. Many ranchers would argue there have been multiple studies completed showing, more of-ten than not, grazing can be more helpful to waterways than harmful.
“They [SWRCB] haven’t demonstrated infinitely that grazing is in fact the problem or even a substantial prob-lem,” Wilbur said.
Another concern of CCA is the 303(d) list has not been updated in over 30 years. This list is under section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act and lists impaired waters and de-velops Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), for these waters. The cattlemen believe the list should be reexam-ined to better determine if livestock grazing is a cause of the impairments.
“We would like to see an examination of what the actual sources of the impairments were,” Wilbur said. “[The SWRCB] have jumped to the conclusion that grazing is a substantial cause of these impair-ments and we would like to more thoroughly unveil that information.”
The majority of ranchers believe responsible grazing adds more benefit than harm to the land, but do not see the need for another restriction on both public and private
lands. Just as new regulations on egg farmers have caused great restraint on their operations, livestock producers believe the additional proposal or regulation from the GRAP working group could have a brutal economic im-pact on them as well. Currently, there are approximately 39 million acres of grazing lands in California. Adding a new regulation would have a large effect on more than just livestock producers.
“We are already pretty hard hit by many other regula-tions,” Wilbur said. “We feel that there is a failure to rec-ognize a lot of the measures that ranchers have already taken to ensure water quality.”
Ranchers want clean water and have been doing their part to maintain and improve waterways in California. Many measures have already been taken by producers to maintain water quality across California. Over 1,000 producers have taken short courses on the topic of clean waterways provided by the California Cooperative Ex-tension. Additionally, some ranches have designed spe-cific water quality management plans or participate in various United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service programs.
Three outreach listening sessions regarding GRAP
INDUSTRY
30 | Spring 2015
were held in California during January, includ-ing one in San Luis Obispo, Calif. CCA staff, officers, members and other industry advocates spoke at the hearings on their concerns of the GRAP working group’s current findings. Many producers want to see the SWRCB completely scrap their current ideas for GRAP and develop a new plan with the constant input of livestock producers throughout the state. Although the listening sessions are over, CCA and other al-lied industry organizations plan to stay deeply engaged in the issue.
“We have an advisory committee made up of CCA members, Farm Bureau members, Wool
Grower members and others where we are constantly discussing what our next steps are,” Wilbur said. “We have been meeting with them regularly and are going to continue meeting with them regularly to discuss our concerns.”
Agriculture is one of California’s most vi-tal industries and ranchers plan to keep it this way. While new propositions, regulations and government laws will always be a concern to farmers and ranchers, strong organizations, such as CCA and CFBF, will always be hope for the Californians who value the state’s driving force – agriculture.
BENEFITS OF GRAZING LANDS
Information gathered from the USDA.
Healthy grazing lands provide habitats for
varieties of mammals, birds and insects.
Increased productivity and diversity of plants
is often an outcome of good grazing
management
Animal grazing can help reduce erosion and improve water
quality.
Introduction of invasive plant species can be elimintated by
animals grazing.
agcircle | 31
INDUSTRY
Our world today is more environ-mentally conscious than ever be-fore. Green and sustainable move-
ments are gaining ground, bringing hope we as a country can manage resources in a responsible and ethical way. However, for many industries depending on the use of natural resources for survival, this move-ment is a double-edged sword. Though it is inspiring to see many individuals and busi-nesses becoming more sustainable, there is a general lack of education concerning practices like logging. What most have for-gotten is when managed properly, logging is a sustainable practice and trees are a renewable resource.
In its prime, logging represented the sec-ond-biggest sector of Alaska’s economy. The Tongass National Forest was once the back-bone of this industry, bringing prosperity to the locals and their communities. Logging was so prosperous that in 1980, Congress ordered the National Forest Service to auc-tion 4.5 billion board feet of lumber every decade. At the height of its success and ac-tivity, the timber industry in Alaska sup-
ported 4,600 jobs. Today, however, logging employment is a mere shadow of its busy and successful past. As of 2011, logging jobs had fallen from 4,600 to approximately 307. In a recent report conducted by the Alaska Department of Labor, payroll has fallen to $21 million for the logging and forest prod-ucts manufacturing center. This is a loss of over $100 million in revenue since 1990.
The spiral of the Alaskan timber industry has, without a doubt, adversely affected lo-cal communities, schools and economies. According to Dr. Sarah Bisbing, who holds a Ph.D. in forest ecology from Colorado State University and teaches several classes at Cal Poly, the people dependent on the timber industry barely make enough to get by as it is. When business does come in the form of logging and sale of wood products, the bigger mills and corporations make much of the profit. For many families who reside in smaller towns far from the interstate, if they lose a job, there are no other options in the immediate area. They must leave in order to find further opportunity and employment, perhaps in Alaska’s growing
tourism industry. For Steve Auten,
the ranch opera-tions and resource manager at Swan-ton Pacific Ranch in Santa Cruz, Calif., it is all about the balance between what the consumer needs and what will maintain natural re-sources for decades to come. Swanton Pacific Ranch is committed to en-suring the quality of its forestry pro-
gram as well as the health of its forests, and watches over 1,355 acres of forested property daily. In California, Swanton Pa-cific Ranch represents the pinnacle of prop-er forestry management. Swanton Pacific Ranch has the strictest forestry practices in Santa Cruz, and the city has the strict-est practices in California. It is because of his experience in managing such a suc-cessful operation that Steve Auten believes the timber industry must be kept alive in Alaska.
“The question is, how do we balance mar-kets and resource use, as well as the protec-tion of those natural resources in Alaska?” Auten asked while considering the impli-cations of their dying timber industry. The sheer scale of forestry operations in Alaska, as well as a history of mismanagement, pose huge challenges to those trying to restore the balance between nature and consumer.
Both Auten and Bisbing agree aspects of the forestry industry seem out of balance. A majority of California’s wood imports come out of Canada or Brazil, where conservation practices are scarce or don’t exist at all. In Bisbing’s opinion, the United States needs to take on the responsibility of its own nat-ural resources, because there is a need for local forest management to reduce overall global impact and carbon emissions.
In the end, it’s all about education. Peo-ple need to understand if sustainable for-estry is possible where the strictest pol-icies exist (Santa Cruz, Calif.), then it is possible elsewhere. Auten has a great deal of experience dealing in these matters, and has always carried this message with him.
“I have a lot of hope for the future. What people need to know is that you can produce and use natural resources and not destroy the place. It is possible,” Auten concluded.
Keeping an Industry Alive
STORY BY MARIANNA ZAVALAPHOTOS BY KATIE ROBERTI
Information gathered from the USDA.
Introduction of invasive plant species can be elimintated by
animals grazing.
32 | Spring 2015
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