Where Have All the Orchards Gone? Area Farmers Fight Against Bureaucratic Chaos October 2006

by Don Huntington
Images by R. Byrne

Paul Spinola and Meredith Nunn are two farmers who share a single problem. Actually, like all small-acreage farmers in our increasingly urbanized East County, the two share a lot of problems. For example, it’s been a long time since a local farmer could buy a part for a broken-down tractor without making a 50-mile round-trip. Costs for fuel, equipment, and wages are constantly rising while competition from foreign growers continues to exert downward pressures on prices. Our strange weather, with weeks of cold and rain followed by days of record-breaking heat, seriously affected the size and quality of this year’s crops.

However, these are problems that farmers regard as merely the acts of God or the results of an under-regulated global economy. They are nothing more than the cost-of-doing-business. Aggravating but normal.

There’s something going on, however, in the East Contra Costa County farm scene that is worse than triple-digit heat or imported Costa Rican produce. Bureaucracies are putting enormous obstacles in the path of farmers successfully remaining on the land.

The Trials of Paul and Debbie Spinola
Paul and Debbie Spinola are attempting to farm property off of Sellers Avenue that was handed down from Paul’s parents. After a period of time while the land lay fallow, the Spinolas began trying to return the farm to full production. One of the simple tasks involved in doing this is bringing in topsoil to enrich their orchards.

The problem is that the Spinolas were not allowed to do this without obtaining a permit from the county. And, it took a year of filling out paperwork, making phone calls, replacing the lane they had been using for 30 years with a mandated road, plus paying a $9,000 fee before the county would grant them the permit. “And this was to do something that we were zoned to do,” Paul said with some asperity.

The county’s behavior towards the Spinolas is echoed by representatives from the East Contra Costa County Irrigation District, East Bay Mud, and PG&E – all of which, through a combination of arcane actions and the arbitrary imposing of bureaucratic standards, have seemingly conspired to prevent the Spinolas from getting their farm back into full operation. Paul claims that the four bureaucracies appeared to work in concert to doom his little agricultural enterprise. “Each of these organizations have put unreasonable stumbling blocks in the way of us becoming successful,” Paul said.

When he started farming, Paul said he was not particularly involved in political action. The awful things that he has had to endure, however, pushed him into activism. He joined the Contra Costa County Farm Bureau and this year is serving as the bureau’s vice president. He is also a member of the board of Harvest Time, which is an association of U-Pick and fruit stand operators. Paul says that he doesn’t have frontage for a stand even if he wanted to put one up. He simply wanted to support Harvest Time because it is an organization involved in helping local farmers remain viable.

“We’re in the County Ag Preserve,” Paul said. “You would think that this would help us. The County created the ag core to keep us going, but then they turned around and are applying residential rules to farm lands.”

Paul says that the ability to provide value added products, for example, is critical to farmers, but the county is prohibiting any commercial enterprises. “We can’t sell a jar of jam,” he said.

The Spinolas have been helping school children learn about growing things. Classes of young children regularly visit the farm where they work on a “Pizza Garden” in which they grow the ingredients found in pizzas such as oregano, basil, tomatoes, and onions. Debbie is an ambassador for the State of California’s “Ag in the Classroom” program.

The happy, excited faces of children rejoicing over the parsley that is magically beginning to appear in their pizza garden makes Debbie’s struggle worthwhile. The sight of the branches on his parents’ almond trees hanging down with their harvest is enough to offset all the bureaucratic aggravations, as far as David is concerned.

Because of the difficulties of bringing their almond orchards up to peek production, Paul & Debbie have begun to raise lavender, which is a good crop for the Spinolas in light of their difficulties with bureaucratic processes because lavender is one of the ingredients used in aromatherapy, providing wellness and relaxation for people, and helping soothe nervous disorders.

Lavender, therefore, is “just what the doctor ordered,” perhaps, for people who are trying to survive increasingly fierce storms of bureaucratic indifference and ill will. Debbie says that she regards her plot of lavender as a healing garden.

“If it hadn’t been for Debbie’s tenacity,” Paul admitted, “we would have turned the farm over to the developers two years ago.”

The Tribulations of the Farmer’s Daughter
Meredith Nunn is raising fruit on the side of East County almost directly opposite from the Spinolas, and she voices complaints about the local bureaucracies that are similar to theirs. She is having a conflict with the Highway 4 Bypass Agency over the loss of some of her trees to the extension that is slicing through the back of her orchards. Meredith said that the representatives behaved in an arrogant “This-is-what-we’re-going-to-make-you-do” attitude.

Meredith says, “If those guys had come to me with a smile and sat down at a table with me so we could have a cup of coffee together and talk the matter over in a civilized fashion, I certainly would have listened to what they said.”

Meredith said that the representatives’ obnoxious manner made her decide that she wasn’t going to cooperate with them. A check is supposedly waiting for her in some county office, together with a form that she’s supposed to sign but she hasn’t gone to get the check nor has she signed any form.

Meredith’s problems with local officials extend beyond issues with the bypass. “I hung some vinyl letters beside the road that spelled out ‘Rent a farm for an event,’” she said. “I received a hundred phone calls from people who wanted to rent the farm for things like kids parties, charity events, and family cookouts. I was overjoyed! I never imagined that there would be such a demand! I checked out insurance requirements and other details and found out that the business would be simple and cost effective.”

However, a county inspector made Meredith take down the sign. “You don’t have the proper permits,” he said. And then added, “You never will be able to get them.”

Meredith asks the plaintive question, “Where is the harm in renting out a lawn for a party? How did that become illegal?” And then she added, “Based upon their actions you would think I was putting in an adult bookstore.”

Meredith has a vision of creating some beautiful gardens in parts of her property. She has had as many as 2,000 children a year come to her property for farm visits. “I could make this place like a paradise as I provide educational support for the children, if the county would give me the required permits. Which they won’t!”

Meredith said the county inspector also pointed to her coffee stand, which she has operated on the site for the past dozen years, and said, “You need a building permit for that coffee bar.” Meredith said that the man didn’t realize that her drive through coffee stand wasn’t a building at all but was only a trailer.

The county’s behavior has created such a chaotic situation, Meredith says, that she’s afraid to replace her 20-year-old failing peaches with new trees. “It would take 3-4 years for them to begin producing crops,” Meredith said. “By that time this place might be a strip mall.”

Meredith is resisting the temptation to sell out to the developers as long as possible because, like the Spinolas, she really loves farming. “Between hauling stuff off to the dump and hauling in compost, my life is full of glamour,” Meredith says with a twinkle in her eye.

Meredith said that many people understand who she is and realize that she’s providing healthy products for people and good fun for families. Urban dwellers stop by the Farmer’s Daughter and are able to sample the simple elegance of life. “I’ve been coming here for 17 years,” some of them tell her. “This is my favorite place.”

The other reason Meredith wants to keep the Farmer’s Daughter going is because of her sense of place. “They say it takes a village to raise a child,” she said. “And I’m a child of this village, for sure. All the old-timers around here babysat me when I was young. I love to give back to the community that has given – and continues giving – so much to me.”

“We’re not going to quit,” Meredith adds. “We’re becoming like my old fruit trees. We’re being stressed but we’re hanging in there for the time being.”

Many local farmers could tell their own version of Paul and Meredith’s stories. Local winegrowers have similar complaints. Several years ago the county agreed to permit vineyards to create wineries, but over the next several years adamantly refused to grant anyone a permit to actually build one. The county’s bureaucratic inaction has forced local winegrowers to continue hauling their grapes to places like Napa to get them processed.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel?
Paul Spinola attended a meeting of the local municipalities (MACs) that was addressing countywide problems. The policy makers were discussing things like traffic flow, problems with trucks, etcetera, but they were ignoring issues dealing with agriculture.

Paul told them, “If things keep going in the direction they are headed right now you soon won’t have open space. Farmers will be selling to developers because our government is making it too difficult for them to stay in business.” Then he added, “The County needs to take a step back and help farmers deal with the bureaucratic obstacles being thrown up in front of our being able to survive in this area.” Heads nodded but, of course, nobody did anything to correct the problem. What could they do?

County Supervisor, Mary Piepho is one person who is trying to address Paul’s concerns. She agrees that the county has made mistakes in not being quicker to meet the needs of the people working in the ag core. But she said the county is listening to the complaints of farmers.

Mary said that it was a great breakthrough to finally get a representative from East County on the Board of Supervisors. She said that she is making the county pay attention to what is going on out here.

Mary is working on developing county resources to assist farmers in dealing with county matters. Some county officials are willing to talk with farmers about how to become compliant. Mary is pushing the idea of setting up a county ombudsman position and thereby providing a person whose sole job would be to assist farmers in coming to compliance.

I spoke with David Navarrette, who is growing and processing olives. David has been bucking against the county’s laborious processes in trying to get permits and approvals for a planned olive press, event center, and combination wine tasting and olive tasting facility.

“The process is time-consuming,” David admitted. But then he added that the county is in the process of streamlining the process. “They are creating an information packet,” he said, “So that a person like me doesn’t have to make five different trips to Martinez – each time trying to meet some requirement that nobody had told me about during the previous trip.”

David pointed out the other side of the issue by admitting that the county is trying to enforce regulations that really do protect the interests of the population. For example, David says that the county has a regulation mandating 50-foot egress and ingress approach strips for his event center. That’s an expensive requirement, but David admits that it is appropriate for the county to require safe flow of traffic. “You can’t have cars veering into and out of traffic and throwing gravel all over.”

David said that the county has made compromises. When he told county officials that he wanted to have events on his property they responded, “You aren’t licensed for events.”

“I wouldn’t stand for that,” David said. “I pushed back and we worked a compromise out together.”

David pointed out that most farmers aren’t accustomed to dealing with bureaucracies but that the need to do so is just part of life. He also noted that the county really is making honest efforts to understand farmers’ needs and to change regulations to make it easier for farmers to do their work.

“I’ve gone to as many as five different meetings in one week,” David said. “The county is trying to figure out how to do the right thing.”

“There are many regulations that need to be changed,” David said. “And officials are trying to ask farmers, ‘What do you want to change and why do you want to change it?’”

We should applaud the efforts of both sides to address the problems and find solutions. Meredith sounded a key theme in the debate when she said that she didn’t want to throw rocks at anyone, but just wanted everyone to work together in figuring out how to get things done to preserve the viability of local agriculture.

The Way Ahead
Meredith says that she feels sometimes as though she’s watching over the end of the farming era in Brentwood. “Unless things change I predict that Pittsburg, Antioch, and Brentwood will all merge into a giant Pittsantwood,” she said, “Which will simply be a maze of interconnected strip malls, parking lots, tract houses, and office buildings, stretching from the Mount Diablo foothills to the Delta.”

Meredith claims that burying East County farmlands beneath an urban tide isn’t what local residents need or desire. She pointed out that the government spends a lot of money encouraging us to eat healthy and to get proper exercise, but then we end up eating foods shipped in from some sprawling non-organic South American farm while walking on a treadmill in a gym because our backyards are the size of a postage stamp.

“The real life is out here in our open fields, orchards, and at our U-Picks,” Meredith said. “I don’t use pesticides so you can eat the fruit right off my trees.”

Meredith believes that unless we figure out how to change the way things work, people will someday be able to drive down Walnut Boulevard and say, “I remember when this road was lined with farms selling fresh produce to people driving by. I remember that a place called the Farmer’s Daughter stood right there where that Blockbuster is today. There’s sure been a lot of changes around here in the past couple decades!”

But not everyone will believe that things have improved at that point. Some of the old-timers will look around and ask, “Where have all the orchards gone?” And they will lament their passing. And rightly so!

Let’s encourage the farmers and county officials who are working to keep the orchards – and a way of life – from passing into oblivion. Let’s hope and pray that Mary Piepho is successful in bringing about the changes that will help us avoid the disaster that Meredith Nunn believes is heading our way.°