ALUMNI
in place, Voss said almond growers grasp the need for change. “If they don’t start adapting, they’ll be left behind, because there will be other vendors with a list of growers that are following sustainable methods, applying sustainable practices,” Voss said. “To keep selling, they are going to have to adapt.” Voss adapts to change easier than others. Although from a farming family — his grandfather Henry Voss was California’s secretary of the Department of Food and Agriculture from 1989-95 and his father and brother farm 200 acres — he earned a college degree in agriculture studies and appreciates old and new ways.
Sustainability Matters to Farming Graduates
“Growers are starting to use more science than just looking at the tree and saying, ‘My dad always waited three weeks to do anything. That’s a good idea for me,’” Voss said as he laughed.
by lori gilbert Lessons of sustainability don’t end when students depart Stanislaus State with diplomas.
Growers of all scales are changing how things are done.
Trent Voss and Hector Vera, relatively recent graduates, are making a difference when it comes to sustainable farming.
Vera included.
Vera (’17, B.S. in Biology), works the night shift in Gallo Winery’s lab, analyzing wine for oxygen, alcohol and chemical levels. By day, though, he’s become a farmer on family property with a dream of someday becoming a full-time market farmer.
He started growing vegetables on a 50foot by 50-foot plot on his family’s ten acres in Waterford. Now, he’s expanded his operation to five plots covering a quarter acre.
Voss (’13, B.S. in Agriculture) is a fourth-generation farmer, who two years ago began farming 40 acres of almonds on leased land and is a regional manager with Blue Diamond Almonds.
Trent Voss
“I relay any information from Blue Diamond to the growers and take information from growers back to Blue Diamond,” Voss said. Updated information is essential in the changing industry.
Gone are the days of flooding fields with water, massively spreading nutrients on the soil and spraying streams of toxic pesticides. Micro sprinklers or drip systems are the norm, pesticides targeting specific tree-damaging insects have replaced those that eliminate all of them and soil nutrients are sprinkled throughout the year. As he sat in his car one day looking at an almond orchard with cover crops on the rows between trees — which add nutrients to soil — and micro sprinklers
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YouTube demonstrations may have wildly exaggerated the profits to be made by market farming, but Vera would still like to someday make a career of it. “I started getting into regenerative agriculture,” Vera said. “It involves using cover crops. Whenever you have an area you’re not using for a season or you’re not going to plant until the next season, instead of leaving it bare, you cover it with plants until you want to plant there again.” Using cover crops to add nutrients to the soil is just one lesson he’s learned by dedicating his spare time to his garden after working from 11:30 p.m. to 8 a.m. at Gallo.
