Butter and eggs still reign in Petaluma

Farming is still alive and well in a region once known as “The Egg Capital of the World,” where long-time family farms and aspiring new producers around Petaluma are feeding a growing appetite for all things local.

In a county now widely known for its sprawling acres of vineyards, leaders in Sonoma County agriculture and business development said more traditional farm products like eggs and milk continue to play a major role in the regional economy.

While wine dominates in northern and eastern Sonoma County, in the broad and breezy grasslands surrounding Petaluma, butter and eggs still reign.

“It’s not a cliche, it’s true - the bounty of Sonoma County is extraordinary,” said Carmen Snyder, executive director of Sonoma County Farm Trails, an organization that promotes small farms and farmers across the region.

Wine grapes remain Sonoma County’s most valuable agricultural product by a wide margin, earning $592,798,000 in 2014, but dairy, poultry, eggs and beef are all lined up behind grapes as multi-million-dollar categories, according to the most recent Sonoma County Crop Report by the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.

Market milk generated $109,540,900 that year, followed by poultry at $65,445,200, livestock and poultry products, which includes eggs, at $54,198,100 and beef at $15,838,900.

Around 43 percent of the cattle raised for dairy or beef in Sonoma County today are considered organic, according to the Crop Report, a niche that Development Board Director Ben Stone said more farmers are embracing amid strong market demand. Consumers are also gravitating toward foods and beverages that evoke a sense of place and process, which has broadly shown to add market value for agricultural products in Sonoma County, he said.

“It’s a whole movement,” he said.

Among those who have made the switch are Jessica McIsaac, 34, and her husband, Neil, who converted their family dairy herd to an all-organic holstein operation in 2011. The operation has 340 cows, a business operated as a partnership with other family members.

It was a major shift for the family business, but it wouldn’t be the last.

Seeking to diversify the family income after the birth of twins, McIsaac added a small group of chickens for a free-range egg laying operation off Tomales Road around five years ago. A distributor operating in California at the time was eager to buy as many free-range eggs as it could, a product that was attracting consumers willing to pay a premium over eggs produced by chickens living in less luxurious conditions.

It wasn’t long before McIsaac’s business grew to approximately 6,500 animals laying around 5,500 eggs each day, creating a steady income stream that was suddenly thrust into a realm of uncertainty when the buyer, Red Hill Farms, pulled out of California, McIsaac said.

Instead of folding the operation, McIsaac, who had degrees in both dairy sciences and agriculture business, bought the refrigeration and cleaning hardware needed to distribute and process her eggs in-house and launched Pasture Fresh Eggs. The young company adds its own eggs to those purchased from a handful of similar producers in the area, selling them directly at Whole Foods Market locations in Northern California and to a company that bundles the eggs with other free-range producers.

McIsaac described the pivot as exemplifying the kind of business savvy that is integral to today’s agriculture world, where farmers are having to adapt in order to seize on an evolving marketplace.

“Ranching is different than it used to be. You used to be able to just be a rancher or a farmer and stay in business. It was much more simple,” she said. “And nowadays with the regulations, and price volatility, and market volatility, it’s a constant battle. You just don’t stop producing 5,500 eggs. At that point it has already grown to a business structure, and you’re dependent on the money, and you have employees. You’re already committed. So you figure out how to do it. That’s part of being a farmer.”

Petaluma is the economic hub for agricultural activity in southern Sonoma County, where larger food processing companies create a market for regional farmers to sell their products. Clover Stornetta Farms, a major dairy processor, buys raw milk from 27 dairy families across Sonoma, Marin and Humboldt counties including eight in the Petaluma area, according to a company spokesperson.

The city is also home to the North Bay’s only slaughterhouse, along with the poultry processor Petaluma Poultry and the dairy product manufacturer Petaluma Creamery.

The larger food processors in Petaluma that buy at least a portion of the agricultural products produced in the surrounding region are themselves a major economic engine within city limits, responsible for 873 direct jobs while supporting the broader employment of an estimated 3,284 people, according to a 2014 study funded by the city of Petaluma.

The farmers and ranchers in Petaluma’s orbit may also positively influence the city’s economy in other, more subtle ways, lending an ambiance that new residents often cite as an appealing attraction, said Ingrid Alverde, Petaluma’s economic development director.

“I think that the agricultural heritage of Petaluma is a huge selling point,” she said.

Indeed, farm-friendly Sonoma County may well be bucking a national trend as it seems to be attracting a whole new generation of young and entrepreneurial farmers, said Stone. The average age of a farmer in the United States is 54, and the share of farmers over age 70 is on the rise, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

Stone said younger farmers appear to be attracted to a certain niche in the high quality, value-added agricultural products Sonoma County is known for.

“It’s many young people trying to work with the sustainable aspects of ag,” he said. “It’s growing grain that hasn’t been grown here in 50 years. I think we’ll see hops coming back, with the craft beer. Gravensteins are doing well, with the craft cider. I think we’re seeing a generational shift of people coming into ag.”

With around 70 Farm Trails members in the greater Petaluma area, Snyder also described a surge of entrepreneurial energy in a new generation of farmers.

“I do see that trend of those younger members of the family being interested in farming,” she said. “As always, the challenge is how to make a living.”

(Contact Eric Gneckow at eric.gneckow@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @Eric_Reports.)