S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , we're hearing about climate solutions from local farmers as part of NPR's Climate Solutions Week. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. When you think of San Diego County , agriculture is likely not the first thing that comes to mind. But more than 214,000 acres of land in the county is farmed. Avocados , lemons , oranges and vegetables are all grown right here. This week is NPR's Climate Solutions Week , which is exploring how food and agricultural systems are tackling pollution and the climate crisis. Today , we're looking at how San Diego County farmers are adapting to a changing climate. Joining me is Amy Quant , an Sdsu professor who has surveyed farmers on the subject , along with Daniel and Paula Cox , who grow avocados in Fallbrook. Welcome to you all.
S2: Thank you , thank you. Yeah , very happy to be here.
S1: So glad you all are here. Amy , I'm going to start with you. As I mentioned , you surveyed farmers across San Diego County for a project related to climate change.
S2: So we originally interviewed ten farmers to get a good sense of some of those impacts and how they might be adapting. And then our actual survey had 119 farmers from across the county , all the way up in Fallbrook , down to the Tijuana River valley. And the climate concerns vary depending on where you are. But by and large , the major concerns were drought and then extreme heat. Like we've been experiencing this past weekend. There are a few farms , mostly in Julian and other places , that do have some high wind events that are very concerning for them , and then some places with flooding. But it's really , um , really. Farmers in San Diego County are mostly concerned with heat and and drought. Yeah.
S1: Well , Paula , just as Amy was saying , we've we've had some high temps across the county.
S3: They don't like any temperature over , say , 95 degrees. And over this last weekend it started on on Friday it was 103 Sunday. And then it was 109 , 102 and 111. So we've had some really high temps and those temperatures stress out the trees. Respiration stops on the tree and you can actually hear the leaves start to dry.
S1: Oh wow.
S3: And you try to mitigate it by keeping the trees. Um watered. So the irrigation is going on all the time.
S1: Well , does this ultimately mean we're going to have fewer avocados to harvest ? Yeah.
S4: So what I what I've been doing , uh , is , uh , doing what you would call , um , uh , spot irrigation , and you do it every 2.5 hours around the clock , and that keeps water to the roots at all times. But even with all that precautionary work , you still see the leaves , like Paula was saying , uh , shrivel up. Uh , some of the avocados are burnt and they're going to be falling off. So , uh , we will have a much smaller crop than we expected. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , I understand you also plant cover crops to help conserve water.
S4: You'd want to plant cover crops to keep the moisture in the soil , to , uh , absorb , um , as a carbon sink , uh , both nitrogen and carbon. And also it helps to cool down the grove to , uh , in an older one like mine , the trees are almost touching leaf to leave , so there's less need. But , uh , we also let the weeds grow and cover crop grow in between those areas where there is sun.
S1: And , you know , I mean , here's a question.
S3: And our last big heatwave was in 2020. And it hit 115 out in Fallbrook. The trees are stressed. And so the good news is we didn't lose any trees. But the tree response to the stress as it drops its fruit , and then it has to recover. And so the next spring you don't get a bloom. So you miss out on the fruit set for that year as well. And then it typically takes the third year before you get a bloom and you'll get fruit again , then on the fourth year. So it's a long recovery once a tree is stressed from the heat. Mhm.
S1: Well Dan you mentioned that you're you know you're watering more in response to the high heat. How does that impact the bottom line.
S4: Well hugely because um you use a lot more water obviously. And water here is very expensive. And so that is our number one expense by far. And I have a well so I am less impacted by then a lot of the farmers. But like my , my uh , grove is 27 acres and I use about 30 million gallons of water a year. And so you can imagine how that cost would just impact an Avocado farmer here in San Diego with the with the huge increases in in water costs that we've seen , especially in the last 5 to 10 years.
S3: So we're trying to sit with the different water districts to see about how water can be made more available to farmers even during drought years , and that as the as farmers use more water and as with water , costs have skyrocketed over the last ten years. We've lost over 10,000 acres in Fallbrook , too , from avocados. People went out of business because they couldn't afford the cost of water. So the water districts need to look at how they're going to support AG in San Diego to keep the 214,000 acres going with with the constraints of climate change and how we can think , think things through differently.
S1:
S2: So , Dan , I'd already mentioned the top two most mentioned things , which were irrigation. So changing how you irrigate , how frequently you irrigate , and then soil management , just like cover crops , other people are mulching. Um , two of the other things that farmers brought up was changing crop types. So totally switching what they're growing. This came out especially in the wine grape growers that we've talked to. Some of them are switching to more heat tolerant varieties of wine or wine grapes. So that's one way you can adapt. Um , part of our survey also looked at kind of trees integrated into field crops and how that might help lower temperatures. So as Dan was saying , if the trees leave the leaf cover touches that can help create microclimates under the trees , which can help soil moisture and help other crops potentially grow. So those were the four probably most common ways that farmers told us they were adapting to the extreme heat.
S1: Yeah , well , Daniel , you're also growing coffee beans and eucalyptus. Is that in in an effort really to respond to climate change.
S4: No , no , that was , um , the coffee was to make a profit. And we found , though , that , um , the coffee that was in between the avocado trees and under the shade of those trees survived , whereas the others did not. Uh , due to the extreme temperatures we've been seeing over the last five years , um , we've seen a pattern , by the way , of , uh , higher highs and longer spells over the last five years. It was very rare to see anything over like 105. And now over. Let's see , I have it written here. Uh , 2020 , we saw 115 2020 , 112. And this year we're seeing , uh , 111. So what we've done is we've tried to , uh , see if we could grow other crops like eucalyptus and , and eucalyptus do very well in in hot weather. But now everybody's growing eucalyptus , so it's hard to sell for for a profit.
S1: This is KPBS Midday Edition. We're back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman , in honor of NPR's Climate Solutions Week. I am sitting here talking with Amy Quant , an Sdsu professor who surveyed farmers on the subject of tackling climate pollution and the climate crisis , along with Daniel and Paula Cox , who grow avocados in Fallbrook.
S3: And by having a good mulch on the underneath the trees that does keep moisture in. There's also funds available to improve irrigation and that does help as well. But as a farmer in San Diego County farmers make sure that they're not wasting any water at all. So everything is irrigated through micro sprinklers directly to the trees , and we have soil sensors to make sure that we're not overwatering or under watering , that we're applying the right amount of water as well.
S1:
S2: They're thinking the Central Valley or the Central Coast. And we found in our survey , about half of farmers felt they lack the necessary support and resources to even know how to adapt to climate change and know what the future climate change will be like. Most farms in San Diego County are small , part time farmers , and that's a real challenge to access those resources. You don't. If you're farming five acres , you don't have the time or the skills , maybe to apply for these government grants or to work on these programs. So I think a lot of farmers that we spoke to feel that they are kind of underrepresented and would love more support from the government.
S1: And Sdsu is making an effort to to be a resource for farmers. Tell me more about that.
S2: Yeah , there's probably about ten faculty around campus that are really trying to strengthen our focus on agriculture. San Diego County and Southern California really doesn't have a traditional agricultural university like a UC Davis. So there's ten of us on campus that have a big $5 million USDA grant. And the point of this grant is to help train Sdsu students on local food systems and local agriculture. So hopefully that can help spread awareness and also produce the next generation of of food and agricultural workers that can help farmers adapt to some of these issues and become farmers themselves. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , Daniel , you're a member of a group called Avocado Growers of California.
S4: As a matter of fact , San Diego has the most small farms of any county in the nation. And so at AGC Avocado Growers of California , that if I may make a little plug , you can go to AVO Gqom on Vogue.com and learn more about us. But we are a non-profit corporation that is made up of volunteers. None of us get paid. We have meetings every month to educate avocado growers of how they can be more productive. Um , soil sensors was one class. Our Amy was just at our meeting last month to talk about agroforestry and the benefits it has to our climate , and we were glad to hear that avocado groves are a benefit to our climate. Um , and we talk about organic growing And , um , a lot of things that will help our industry remain sustainable.
S1: And speaking of sustainability , I want to circle back to something we talked about earlier , which is the well that you dug. Um , did you do that to decrease the cost of water ? Yeah.
S4: No , I actually , uh , back in 2007 , uh , as you may or may not know , we were in the middle of a very , very severe long drought , which I'm sure is also part of climate change. And we had to cut back on our water by about 30% or no to 30% of what we were using the year before. And by doing so , we would have had to , uh , let about a third to two thirds of our trees die off. And we just had a brand new Avocado Grove set up. So Paula and I decided we're going to take the risk and drill a well. And , boy , that was a harrowing experience because they kept drilling and drilling no water. And and I finally I was living in Tustin at that time. Finally I came down and I to see what was happening. And , uh , about 45 minutes later , they hit water and it's like hitting oil for us. It was incredible. And so yeah , so it was just survival at that point. And and now that we have the well , we're able to , uh , to make a profit most years. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , Amy , you know , drought is , um , it's one of the impacts of climate change that farmers mentioned in your survey.
S2: If you do have groundwater and have dug a well , that certainly helps. But a lot of farmers rely on municipal water , which a lot of that comes from the Colorado River. So that brings up the larger drought in the entire western part of the United States , and how that that can be a concern even for a small farmer here in San Diego County , since that could be a source of their water. And that water is also really expensive. I mean , we all have very high water bills here in San Diego. So imagine if you're now , you know , um , irrigating an entire farm , what that cost might be. And drought is drought can be complicated. It's about water. It's also about high temperatures. And it really depends on what what kind of crops you're growing and how often you need to irrigate. Yeah.
S5: Yeah.
S1:
S2: That's obviously not a possibility with avocados , but for folks who are doing vegetables or greens , that's something that they are doing. We interviewed a farmer last year or the day after Hurricane Hilary came through , and we were thinking that he would be dealing with the impacts of that , and he actually said that no , their their farm was fine because they were mostly farming inside greenhouses. So they were in a more controlled environment.
S1: This is certainly a conversation that is going to be ongoing and something we continue to follow. I've been speaking with Amy Quant , an Sdsu professor , along with Daniel and Paula Cox , who grow avocados in Fallbrook. Thank you all so much for joining us today.
S3: Well thank. You.
S2: You. Yeah. Thank you.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose. Everyone.
