Some speakers urged studies on mechanized harvesting of peaches and other delicate fruit to deal with shortages of hand labor. Others urged research into irrigating farms with cannery waste water and making fuel from crop residues.
About 40 people turned out Wednesday at the DoubleTree Hotel for a meeting of the specialty crop committee of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education and Economics Advisory Board.
The board advises U.S. Department of Agriculture officials in charge of research, the cooperative extension program and several other functions. The specialty crop committee deals with fruits, nuts and vegetables, grown in abundance in the San Joaquin Valley.
Kenny Watkins, who grows processing tomatoes in the Linden area of San Joaquin County, said this industry was saved by mechanized harvesting decades ago.
"When I was a kid, my father picked a few loads of tomatoes with hundreds of men," he said. "Today, we do it with a handful of guys, and we get a few loads an hour."
Watkins, second vice president of the California Farm Bureau Federation, said increased research money could help other crops mechanize.
Control pests, but safely
Ray Ratto, part of the management of the Ratto Bros. produce company west of Modesto, urged a boost in pest management research based at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
"A lot of the new chemistry that's coming out is environmentally safe, low toxicity," he said.
More research is needed about agriculture's contribution to global warming and how it might help reduce the fossil fuel burning that is causing the problem, said Gabriele Ludwig, who oversees research at the Almond Board of California, based in Modesto.
"We have prunings, we have trees, we have hulls," she said. "Is there any way to use them in an energy-efficient way?"
Bill Gregg, vice president of government affairs for the California League of Food Processors in Sacramento, said research could help ensure that waste water bound for reuse on farms is not contaminated.
"It can be beneficial to the environment, and it can be productive for both the processors and the growers alike," he said.
'Specialty crop paradise'
Five committee members -- from Salinas, Irvine, Illinois, Florida and Washington, D.C. -- took part in the meeting and toured Ratto Bros. and other operations the previous day.
Gale Buchanan, the USDA undersecretary in charge of research and education, also attended the meeting. His background is in weed science in the South, but he said he was impressed with what California grows.
"In fact, this is specialty crop paradise," Buchanan said. "When you look out of an airplane, you see specialty crops everywhere, and that's not lost on us."
Bee staff writer John Holland can be reached at jholland@modbee.com or 578-2385.
