Marin County is famous for the beauty of its landscape, for affluence, experimental life-styles, and a long-standing resistance to anything that might lead to urban growth. Not many people realize that over half the land in the county is actively farmed or ranched. Still fewer are aware of the vibrant and expanding community of growers who, with support of local government and environmental organizations, have been working cooperatively for more than two decades toward a local and sustainable food system, with notable success.

Perhaps the most widely known among this community’s products is the organic milk in glass bottles from the Straus Family Creamery, which since 2002 also carries the label: “Marin Organic.” The late Bill and Ellen Straus, who founded the dairy farm in 1941, were pioneers in ecological land use practices long before the buzzwords arrived. Ellen also co-founded the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT), the first agricultural land trust in the nation, which now protects 35,000 acres on 53 farms and ranches, and is a model nationwide.

In 1977, the Strauses’ son Albert returned from California Polytechnic State University armed with a degree in dairy science, to quickly find that he would either need to break the mold or close the family business. “It was obvious to me that we couldn’t succeed continuing to farm the way we had been [conventionally], and my desire to take our dairy organic became an immediate necessity,” he says.

Albert converted the farm to organic production, and in 1994 founded the Straus Family Creamery to process the organic milk. Marketed in old-fashioned glass bottles, with the cream on top, it quickly caught on despite its higher price. The taste was nothing like the standard homogenized product. Today the Straus Family Dairy and Creamery are cornerstones of the organic farming community in Marin. The Straus brand is nationally recognized for excellent milk, yogurt, butter, cheeses, and ice cream. Careful planning, smart business practices, and the willingness to take risks has paid off. The operation continues to grow steadily and has helped two other local dairy producers to convert to organic, as well as to bring jobs and business to the county.

The pioneering spirit and just plain hard work of Albert Straus and his family inspired other farmers to diversify and add high-value crops. What follows is the story of how one county—with the right mind-set, and a perfect climate for growing high-quality products—connected with nearby health-conscious consumers willing and eager to purchase food with human beings and a particular place behind it.

Can-do Creativity

Marin’s agricultural community lies mostly in the western part of the county, where over 167,000 acres are actively farmed and ranched. Dairy and livestock account for 80 percent of the county’s agricultural production. The average size of a farm is 588 acres, and most are third- and fourth-generation family-owned.

Like farmers elsewhere on the urban edge, they face growing pressures: Increased competition, price restrictions, uncontrolled predators, and rising operating expenses put the dairy, beef, and sheep industries at risk. The average age of the landowner is 55—who’ll take over next is a constant worry. Continued decreases in profitability are forcing long-established dairy and livestock operations to consider other options, including selling land for non-farm use (usually for estate-type development) and diversification (adding organic or other high-value crops).

A recent survey of Marin producers indicates that 63 percent of the 95 respondents consider their operations unprofitable or marginally profitable (Status of Marin County Agriculture, February 2003, E. Rilla and L. Bush, UC Cooperative Extension). According to MALT executive director Bob Berner, “Ranchers also face strong economic pressures to consider selling land for development. Even in cases where development rights have been sold, the new landowners may have difficulty keeping their lands in active agriculture.” Yet the same study showed that only two percent of the responding farmers do not intend to keep farming.

Bob Giacomini, a Point Reyes dairy operator, tells how his four daughters responded when he asked whether they would take over the family’s 500-cow operation: “No way!” Like other ranchers’ children returning home after college, they saw their opportunities for entering the family business as limited.

Bob Giacomini wanted the ranch to continue, despite its diminished prospects. He therefore asked his daughters to tell him what they enjoyed, and again heard a unanimous answer: “Food.” So the family searched for a way to combine the successful Giacomini dairy operation with artisan culinary production. Two years’ research and careful consideration paid off. The Point Reyes Blue Cheese phenomenon was born from Bob Giacomini’s desire to keep his kids on the farm. The family now produces 3,000 wheels of cheese a week and plans to expand soon. The cheese has been received enthusiastically nationwide, and sales grow daily. Karen, Diana, Lynn, and Jill handle the sales, marketing, and administration. Bob says he does a little bit of everything—at least two full-time jobs.

The Giacomini story is typical of the can-do creativity that typifies many Marin agricultural operators and their allies. That’s the good news, and it’s really encouraging.

Why in Marin?

Since 2002, a diverse and seemingly incongruous coalition of farmers, local government, educators, nonprofit organizations, and environmental groups have created a mutual support system. With financial support from local and state foundations they are taking charge of what they hope their future will be.

At the hub of this coalition is the local county University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) office. There, the “Grown in Marin” program, staffed by Steve Quirt and student interns, assists farmers and ranchers with diversification, so as to strengthen the viability and long-term success of agriculture in the county. It offers information about new and profitable marketing opportunities, individual field trials assistance, and the production of a web-based directory that connects farmers and consumers. Funding has come from the County, the Clarence E. Heller Foundation, the University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, and Marin Organic, a producer association organized to foster organic practices, bring organic foods to a wider public, and create a label to identify Marin products.

“The effort by the UCCE office, and especially Steve’s energy, has done more to give all of us hope that we have a future farming and ranching here in Marin than ever before,” says Marin Organic’s president Warren Weber. “They give us different ideas, and connect us with other ranchers; and this mixing of the old and new, the conventional and organic, so to speak, is creating new possibilities.” Weber’s 40-acre row crop operation, Star Route Farms, in the coastal town of Bolinas, has been continuously farmed organically longer than any other farm in California. He started with five acres in 1974, after earning a doctorate in English literature. In 1979 he worked on the state’s first organic food law, which was succeeded by the Organic Foods Act of 1990, and also played a role in creating a county organic certification program—the first in the nation (followed shortly by Monterey County’s). Its popularity, with over 30 registrants and a queue of interested applicants in less than two years, overstressed the resources of its manager, Anita Sauber. She says: “It wasn’t long before we realized that the demand for organic certification would be more than our staff could handle. We were considering closing the door to new applicants.”

Marin Organic got wind of the situation and raised sufficient private funds to establish a position within the county office for a full-time organic inspector. “We recognized that the future of organic agriculture in Marin depends on everybody,” Weber explained. “We need to be able to work together and get things accomplished. The funding of an additional inspector was critical to the success of our mission to have an all-organic Marin.” In 2002 the county had 810 acres certified organic. Today there are 2,586.

Why is all this happening in Marin? What’s so special about this county? And can the successes here be emulated in other coastal counties?

Some of the key elements crucial to the Marin community’s success also exist in other counties, especially along the coast: a climate perfect for high-quality, high-value crops, proximity to large urban areas, and creative farmers. Marin, however, is benefiting from an unusually harmonious collaboration between the agricultural and environmental communities—which tend to view each other with suspicion elsewhere—and the willingness of local government to go the extra mile to help farming and ranching survive in the county.

For example, the county board of supervisors helped beef ranchers David Evans and Mike and Sally Gale to develop financially promising alternatives to the commodity beef industry. After graduating from Cal Poly with a degree in agricultural business, Evans returned to the family ranch charged with new ideas. His family supported his ideas and he started Marin Sun Farms, offering beef free of antibiotics and hormones, raised on grass, and marketed locally. The Gales, meanwhile, had restored Sally’s family’s old Victorian farmhouse as a bed and breakfast catering to tourists who enjoy the owls in the barn, the birds in the willow thickets by the creek, and the beef cattle in the pastures.

With urging from Evans and the Gales, a working group was established to see what it would take to create a grass-fed beef certification program. Interested ranchers, County Agricultural Commissioner Stacy Carlsen, U.C. livestock and range advisor Stephanie Larson, and others studied the question for two years. In the end, the county board of supervisors unanimously agreed to assure that anyone who buys a Marin certified grass-fed beef product could be confident of its purity, origin, and animal care. Supervisor Steve Kinsey explained: “Our agricultural lands are an essential part of our heritage, our quality of life, and an important part of our future. This grass-fed ordinance is one way we can encourage and support our agricultural operators.”