Tom Willey, along with his wife Denesse, operated T&D Willey Farms from 1981 until 2016, a 75-acre Certified Organic farm in Madera, California, growing a wide array of Mediterranean vegetables year-round. Tom says, “we’ve got to figure out how to live on agriculture without destroying the natural systems that support its productivity.”
He says organic is all about living biology and the diversity of biology and and the all of the living organisms in your soil.
T&D Willey Farms produce was appreciated in specialty markets and fine restaurants up and down the U.S. West Coast as well as on the tables of over 800 weekly Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscription members in their own community. Tom was, for nearly a decade, Slow Food USA’s governor for California’s Central Valley and he passionately advocates for local food prominence through his writing, speaking, radio, and event organizing activities. His monthly “Down on the Farm” radio interview program features the work of progressive farmers and others prominent in San Joaquin Valley’s agriculture and food communities. Tom has served over the years on the boards of directors of the Ecological Farming Association (EFA) and California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) and presently is a member of CCOF Certification Services’ five-person LLC Management Committee. He currently serves as a Policy Advisor to The Cornucopia Institute which monitors integrity of the U.S. organic industry. He has been collaborating with several California organic growers to develop no-till and reduced-till organic vegetable production systems over the last three years.
Watch full episode here: https://youtu.be/rl-8hregpUk
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