You’d think all the emphasis from home cooks and restaurants on local and organic produce would have Texas farmers jumping into the organics game.

Not exactly.

Here’s what’s happening: According to the National Center for Appropriate Technology, a nonprofit organization that, since 1976 has promoted sustainable farming, the entire state of Texas has only 305 crop and livestock operations certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Many of these are very small, selling less than $10,000 in ag products annually, and probably less than 200 farms have sold organic products in recent years, the organization stated in a report, “Who Are The Organic Farmers in Texas?”

And it gets worse. Texas has the lowest percentage of certified organic farms of any state in the nation and their numbers may be decreasing. According to government figures, only 0.07 percent of Texas farms are certified organic, compared to California, where 3.38 percent of farms are so certified.

This is all pretty crazy when you think about it. After all, many parts of Texas have a virtual yearlong growing season, labor’s cheap and Texas consumers buy lots of organic food, about $1 billion annually, according to NCAT’s estimate.

Why the gap between the demand and the supply?

Consider this experience from farmer Pedro Schambon: He had contracted with meal delivery company Blue Apron to grow turnips, but because he operates an organic farm and grows open-pollinated turnips that grow at different rates, they are not always the right size on the exact date Blue Apron wants them.

So the owner of My Father’s Farm in Seguin recently spent time on the phone trying to unload several plastic barrels filled with the unwanted, recently harvested turnips.

He called a friend with horses, but apparently turnips give horses diarrhea. So instead he looked for someone who raised pigs and would take the turnips off his hands.

“Fortunately, I’ve still got plenty of turnips that are the right size for Blue Apron,” said Schambon. “And I can sell the smaller ones to H-E-B.”

That’s just one of the many headaches that apparently are keeping farmers from making the leap from traditional to organic farming — and has them missing out on benefiting from the demand for organic food.

In other words, Texas farmers are leaving a lot of money on the table.

Why?

“That’s a complicated question,” said Mike Morris, director of the southwest regional office of MCAT. He listed several factors.

It’s technically difficult and time-consuming to switch from traditional farming methods to organic. For example, fields must undergo a three-year transition period during which no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides are used.

Many farmers see a drop in yields during this transition period, yet they’re unable to get the higher prices organic produce commands because they’re not yet certified.

It takes a lot of skill to operate a successful organic farm, and so these farmers need a lot of technical support, which isn’t always available.

Generally, a farm can be certified organic if it does not grow genetically modified crops or use synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, and, if it’s raising livestock, doesn’t use antibiotics and growth hormones. In addition to eschewing GMOs, My Father’s Farm relies on regular applications of organic pest control such as bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, a naturally occurring soil-borne bacteria, and neem oil made from the fruit and seeds of the neem tree.

And weed control? He showed me his calloused palms and said, “The best way is pulling them by hand.”

The Schambons have been farming this land for five years and he said his organic produce sells for about 30 percent more than it would if it was traditionally grown.

Even with this premium, so few Texas farmers have made the leap that area retailers such as H-E-B often must look elsewhere to fill their shelves with organics.

“We’re deeply committed to sourcing locally and would love to buy more organic food produced in Texas,” said grocery chain spokeswoman Julie Bedingfield. “We expect the number of organic farms to grow, but in the meantime, we’ll continue looking wherever we can to supply our customers with the organic products they demand.”

Trouble is, they often have to look out of state.

“I make deliveries to the H-E-B warehouse off Interstate 35 twice a week,” said Schambon, “and it ticks me off to see all those trucks from California and Mexico delivering organic food when we have the resources to grow it right here in Texas.”

Schambon said he thinks the real reason more farmers aren’t growing organic is their “mindset.”

“They’re so invested in doing things the way they’ve always done them, they can’t conceive of doing it any other way.”

The NCAT report (available at ncat.org) makes a dozen recommendations for accelerating the process of developing and supporting organic farms. These include providing more assistance to farmers making the transition, improving education about organic farming for agriculture extension, Farm Service Agency and bank employees, even launching an “ugly produce” campaign to sell lower-priced organic produce that’s not nearly as cosmetically flawless as what’s grown on traditional farms.

With such a campaign in place, Schambon at least would be able to sell his load of too-big turnips instead of fobbing them off on a pig farmer.

rmarini@express-news.net