The largest organic farm in America _ Visit the organic farm in America

In California, July is the busy farming season. Along the highway 10 1 which runs through the north and south of California, people from farmland queue up to pick strawberries from time to time; After the robot rumbled by, the lettuce was washed and boxed. In a farmland in the Pajero Valley in northern California, several workers are harvesting leeks. A few meters away, a truck stopped in the field. Caesar, the person in charge, said that these workers are from Mexico and are seasonal temporary workers employed by lakeside organic farms. These leeks were quickly cleaned with a water gun, and then directly packed into boxes and transported to the supermarket. "Organic means no use of fertilizers and pesticides. Our products sell well! "

Lakeside organic farm is one of the largest organic farms in Northern California. The reporter visited three times before and after, the boss Dick? Bisotto took time out for an interview. Bisotto is short and stocky, wearing a baseball cap, with gray curly hair sticking out from the brim. Seeing the reporter, he strode to meet him, and the wooden floor knocked: "I can only give you five minutes." I'm too busy these days. I have to work 14 hours a day, and I'm not practical at night. "From the sales signs hanging on the wall, we can see that there are more than 70 kinds of vegetables to be harvested on the farm that day, including 200 boxes of celery, 0/70 boxes of beans/kloc, 0/92 boxes of leeks/kloc and 0/80 boxes of sweet radishes. ...

Bisotto's family first immigrated to California from Mexico, and its farming history has exceeded 100 years. Bisotto likes to wander in the farmland since he was a child. He also set up a planting company in high school to grow tomatoes, strawberries, beans and cucumbers. In 1990s, the price competition of traditional agricultural products became more and more fierce, so he decided to "transform" and plant organic vegetables. "I was forced out at first, and now I find this road is right." Pesoto said that organic vegetables need more energy to manage, and the farmland is more dispersed and the price is higher, but they are favored by consumers because they are close to nature. In some cases, organic vegetables are easier to grow, have fewer pests and taste more authentic than traditional vegetables. During the economic recession, the sales of traditional vegetables were greatly affected, but their sales of organic vegetables were on the rise.

At first, the road was not so smooth. It is very difficult to learn how to fertilize, rotate, eliminate and weed traditional vegetables from scratch. According to the regulations of the United States Department of Agriculture, vegetables grown by organic farms in the first three years according to organic standards cannot be labeled as "organic". Farmers around said Bisotto was asking for trouble. Bisotto found his brothers and sisters as helpers and finally got through this. Now, his business is booming. The planting area of organic vegetables has expanded from the initial 55 hectares to 65,438+0,200 hectares. There are 57 plots in Pajero Valley, and the products are sold in large organic food supermarkets such as Safeway, krogh and Whole Foods all over the United States. According to reports, cabbage and cauliflower are the two vegetables with the largest output and best sales.

Brian, the sales manager, is Pessoto's nephew. "I don't want to be a farmer. I used to be a chef of Japanese food, but I sprained my ankle before coming to Uncle Dick. But I like this job now. Looking at the baskets of organic vegetables in the warehouse, I thought: Whether the food on the American people's table is safe and nutritious depends on our farmers! "