September 2006
California organic farmer wins national sustainable farming award
Growing up on the family dairy in rapidly urbanizing San Jose gave Muller an understanding of farming’s many challenges.
“I wanted to create a different model than what I grew up with,” Muller said. He described his 250-acre organic Full Belly Farm, which sells nearly 80 crops including vegetables, fruits, nuts, and flowers as well as animal products and employs 40 workers, as “a wonderful adventure.”
In 1984, Muller leased 100 acres in the Capay Valley, 45 minutes northeast of Woodland, for fresh market vegetable seed crops. Razor-thin margins on seed crops led him to grow and sell the vegetables themselves.
"Muller’s 'different model' of agriculture focuses on diversified products and varied, lucrative marketing outlets," said David Chaney, education coordinator for the University of California's Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program, and Western Region SARE representative.
Full Belly Farm also sells produce through its 800-member community supported agriculture (CSA) project, and markets through retail outlets and directly to Bay Area restaurants.
“Paul Muller's farming operation exemplifies each of the essential elements of what Western SARE considers as sustainable agriculture,” says Phil Rasmussen, regional coordinator for the Western SARE program hosted at Utah State University in Logan. “His integration of environmental stewardship, including alternative energy sources, coupled with savvy marketing and economic sustainability, typifies what we are trying to encourage and showcase.”
Muller regularly tests new crops and growing methods, and works to achieve higher quality and better flavor. The farm's cropping rotations result in year-round production and year-round sales so the farm can employ steady workers and enjoy continuous cash flow. By harvesting and delivering fresh produce directly to most of its customers, Full Belly captures most of the end user price.
Full Belly, which became fully organic in the 1980s, also nurtures beneficial insects and wildlife by planting hedgerows of native plants and preserving the riparian area along a neighboring creek. A 17-kilowatt photovoltaic solar system was installed last spring, which will pay for itself in eight years and provide a good rate of return for 30 years; Muller and partners are also experimenting with biodiesel filtered and refined from cooking oil from Bay Area restaurants.
“Paul Muller is one of the most dedicated, caring individuals we know,” said neighboring farmers David and Ann Scheuring, who nominated Muller and his partners for the Madden award. “He is committed to a sustainable life, from the use of natural resources to the community he lives in. His ‘family’ on the farm is an inspiration for others.”
Muller gives credit to that family, what he calls a “fairly unique amalgamation of partners,” each contributing a distinctive set of skills and aptitudes. The first farm partner – now Muller’s life partner and mother of their four children – is Dru Rivers, whom Muller met at UC Davis where she coordinated the student farm. Judith Redmond and Raoul Adamchak joined as partners in 1989, and Andrew Braitt in 1993.
Braitt, a former farm intern, is a tangible result of Full Belly’s educational program. Of more than 100 interns, about 15 are now full-time farmers. “We’re not regenerating our farm population very well, so we’re committed to growing farmers,” Muller says.
Muller is joined by other regional Madden Award winners, including:
- Alex and Betsy Hitt, vegetable growers in Graham, N.C.
- Edwin and Marion Fry, organic crop and dairy producers in Chestertown, Md.
- Rex Spray, an organic crop and beef producer in Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Media contacts:
David Chaney, (530) 754-8551, dechaney@ucdavis.edu
