Carleton says. “Conventional farmers are becoming conscious. They’ve always wanted to do the right thing, they just didn’t know what the right thing was.” According to Carleton, who manages Las Palmalitas Ranch with his


son Billy, the number of local organic growers has more than doubled in the last decade to about 25. Industry-wide, if growers are not full- fledged organic, they are reducing the use of chemicals. Carleton says going organic is tantamount to a religious awakening. You have to make a leap of faith. It’s all about the earth and cultivat- ing fruit in the way nature intended. “Who knows what the long-term effect of some of these chemicals is,” Carleton says. “It’s never been studied.” He walks his orchard and reaches through thick, green ground cover


and pulls up handfuls of mulch, crouching to get his hands dirty and point out that the decomposing material occurs naturally, and likely does not exist under trees that are conventionally grown. The syn- thetics kill both the good and bad pests and the good and bad weeds, disrupting the natural processes that replenish soils. Some growers choose to go organic because the fruit fetches a higher price at market. Carleton says if money is the only motivation


going organic is tantamount to a religious awakening.


You have to make a leap of faith.


40 carpinteriaMAGAZINE


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