SAN DIEGO—Small farmers in San Diego agree that it's hard to be a small fish in a vast industrial ocean. So, how do small and regenerative farms compete with dominating corporations? The answer is that they can't, so they create their own pathways to success.
San Diego County is home to over 5,000 farms, 96% of which are family-run and 69% of which range between 1-9 acres. San Diego seems like an agricultural haven on paper, but these small farmers face endless obstacles. Everything from weather to water costs to foreign competition to governmental regulations can prevent them from having a plot of land that simply grows food.
Despite challenges, these farmers are resilient and use creative tactics to combat dominating corporations. They don't try to feed all of America; they want to feed their local communities.
Chuck Samuelson owns Wild Acres Farms in San Diego. He is one of many who decided to devote his life to keeping small farms alive. He also founded a non-profit organization called Heal The Earth, where he helps support a network of local farmers.
Samuelson said that government regulations for California farms make it nearly impossible to sustain a small farm.
"Larger corporations have subsidies and tax breaks that small farmers just can't get to," Samuelson said.
According to Samuelson, there are a few crops like corn, soy, wheat, and sugar peas that the government heavily subsidizes. Samuelson explained that small farmers growing crops like avocados or citrus don't have access to the same government support. Samuelson's advice is to be "radical" and take action.
"I would recommend getting pissed-off and unite," he said. "I think we need to have a thousand pissed-off farmers picketing the local Vons with signs."
While these small farmers aren't on the picketing lines yet, they are developing sustainable, regenerative and creative solutions to help ensure the future of small farming.
One of those farmers is Ruth Jordan, who runs a regenerative farm called Renaissance Solutions. A few years ago, Jordan realized that it is hard for people to have plots of land because of the need for more space in urban areas.
Urbanization has played a vital role in decreasing the number of farms in San Diego. The California Department of Conservation survey of San Diego County says that in 2016-2018, irrigated farmland in California decreased by 56,186 net acres.
So, in 2020, Jordan began to focus on a food-growing system called vermiponics, which is designed for small spaces and urban environments.
While many conventional farmers spend a lot of money on supplies and materials including fertilizer and other chemicals like pesticides, Jordan uses food waste and worms to grow food.
She primarily gets the waste by diverting it from the landfill; then, the worms go to work, and they nourish the places where food can be grown. While nature's processes seem complex, the set up for this arrangement is meant to be accessible for everyone, according to Jordan.
Jordan said she wants to help people start their farms in an accessible way, minus the costs of inputs and the need for large spaces.
She said that many conventional farms use hydroponics to grow food, a similar system that uses a water-based nutrient solution rather than soil. However, according to Jordan, it is just a "chemical soup" that uses no biology.
Jordan knows these sustainable methods can’t compete with the "Walmarts and the Ciscos." She believes that small farms can't compete with big corporations. Her recommendation is to create spaces and networks by working with other local businesses and farms.
While Jordan does something few people have experimented with before, Lou uses ancient practices that indigenous communities have used for centuries.
Nathan Lou is a small farmer with similar ideas about sustainability. He lives on a plot of land in Fallbrook called Split Rock, where he is in the beginning stages of preparing the land for crops.
He created Mongol Tribe, an initiative to educate people about regenerative agriculture.
One of the practices he is currently focused on is Silvopasture, a land management practice that uses sheep to help prepare the land for cultivating native species.
His Navajo-Churro sheep have been clearing his new land slowly, but despite these efforts, these more sustainable practices often take years, according to Lou. He explained that people, especially the government, don't understand that nature moves at its own pace and that there should be respect for that.
According to Lou, to get government funding, he needs to show results quickly and prove that strategies like Silvopasture are sustainable for agriculture in the long term.
He said glyphosate, a toxic pesticide widely used in agriculture, is still the biggest problem. Lou is focused on gathering data for other methods because he explained that "short-sighted solutions" are still being used and justified.
However, whether small farmers are doing something different by experimenting or using ancient practices, they all need the community to come together and support each other.
These farmers are committed to their efforts of bettering the farming industry and continue to create sustainable methods. Lou plans to keep preparing the land he lives on through silvopasture. Still, his bigger goal through the Mongol Tribe is to educate the community about silvopasture and more sustainable farming methods.
Jordan plans to tend to her vermiponics, and she hopes to spread the word about this method of producing food to the community as well. According to Jordan, she provides her lettuce to a small restaurant called Little Frenchie and a cafe called Maya Moon.
According to these farmers, some ways to support this movement are to buy local produce from cooperatives, farmers' markets, and directly from small farmers.
This project was produced as part of the capstone class for journalism majors at San Diego State University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies. The class, JMS 550 Multimedia News Lab, was taught in the spring of 2024. Students were exposed to different generative AI tools, including Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity.ai, Google’s Gemini, Adobe Express’ Text to Image, and ChatGPT 3.5, which assisted in some aspects of content creation. These tools were employed for generating story ideas, structuring outlines, crafting headlines and decks, conducting topic research, and summarizing information. While exploring these tools, the class engaged in discussions about ethical and professional consequences of using AI in journalism. At all times, critical human judgment remained essential. We acknowledge the ethical considerations and encourage transparency when incorporating AI-generated content. For more information about class assignments and class dynamic when using generative AI, you can contact professor Lourdes Cueva Chacon at lcuevachacon@sdsu.edu.