Minimizing Soil Disturbance in Organic Systems, Part I: State of the Art

For the last year-plus, a working group of California farmers, scientists and industry representatives has been focusing on techniques to reduce tillage for improving soil health, with the goal of eliminating mechanized-scale tillage in vegetable and row crops. A second goal of the project is to reduce plastic by using cover crops. All kinds of creative ideas have emerged in the past year from the work of these medium- and large-scale farmers and the researchers who are coordinating the Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) Project. This session will provide an overview of the project, including progress, challenges, principles, equipment, obstacles and ways to work around them, and variations on the general theme of reduced tillage and incorporation of cover crops.