Agricultural Field Trip! Nunes Farms, East of Eden, and Dr. Scot Guenter

Lettuce Harvesters at Nunes Farms

Today, the group kicked off the day at Nunes Farms, a "vertically aligned" agricultural business enterprise that produces, markets, and distributes the "Foxy" and "Foxy Organic" produce brands throughout the United States. Our tour was initially guided by Tommy Nunes, heir to the Nunes "lettuce throne," and current director of operations at the farm. While certainly not the largest farming outfit in the Salinas valley (Dole seems to reign supreme), Nunes seems to be a fantastic representation of the modern agricultural business model. The "farm" is actually an extensive network of subleased (and privately owned) farm plots on the valley floor. The produce is harvested on a schedule (the farmers plant everyday and harvest everyday... pretty insane how non-stop the growing season is in Salinas...) and returned to the central Nunes warehouse facility where the product is weighed, barcoded, and loaded into climate controlled shipping containers or refrigeration units.

Lettuce going to market...

Nunes farms' produce is entirely hand-packed in the field which means that the worker harvesting the crop is literally the only person to touch the product before it hits market. With an extremely stringent set of operating procedures and field regulations, Nunes strives to maintain a high level of cleanliness in the field. With the infamous 2006 e.coli "bagged spinach debacle," in the not-so-distant past, FDA safety compliance seems to be a critical aspect of the farmers' outlook.

The "teams" are paid as a unit, not individually...

The last (gloved!) hand to touch your lettuce before it hits the plate!

On the truck to the warehouse / distribution center...

Monterey county produces (according crop report data from 2012) approximately 790 million dollars of leaf lettuce alone... strawberries are a close second at 780 million. Driscoll farms' strawberry patches were adjacent to the Foxy fields we visited today.


Verl, a retired agricultural industry professor, took us to various locales throughout Salinas and Spreckles (of Spreckles sugar fame, now defunct) for on-site lectures about crop growth, rotation, planting/transplanting, irrigation, organic farming, water filtration, and business practices. It was an extremely informative afternoon!

Verl!

Irrigation / water filtration systems

Our 6pm lecture session tonight included a brief introduction to East of Eden (the 1955 film starring James Dean as Cal) by Dr. Scot Guenter of San Jose State University. After viewing the film the group shared some discussion prior to our release for the evening.

Tomorrow: major lectures on East of Eden!