Browsing by Author "Olimpi, Elissa M."

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    Diverse landscapes but not wildflower plantings increase marketable crop yield
    McCullough, Christopher; Grab, Heather; Angelella, Gina; Karpanty, Sarah M.; Samtani, Jayesh; Olimpi, Elissa M.; O'Rourke, Megan E. (Elsevier, 2022-11)
    Biodiversity-friendly farming practices may create a win-win scenario for biodiversity and crop production by supporting ecosystem services to agriculture. On-farm wildflower plantings and conserving semi-natural habitat surrounding farms are two such practices that focus on the integration of non-crop components into production systems at the local and landscape scale, respectively. Here, we examine the impact of these practices on the regulating services of biological control and pollination, as well as the provisioning service of crop yield in four crops replicated across 22 farms in two US states. Wildflower plantings had no effect on pollination while their influence on pest control was both dependent on the landscape context and inconsistent across crops. In contrast, farms surrounded by higher amounts of semi-natural habitat had consistently higher marketable yields for all four crops. Our findings suggest a need to account for non-production values of wildflower plantings as they provide fewer direct production benefits than surrounding semi-natural habitats.
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    Organic farmers face persistent barriers to adopting diversification practices in California's Central Coast
    Carlisle, Liz; Esquivel, Kenzo; Baur, Patrick; Ichikawa, Nina F.; Olimpi, Elissa M.; Ory, Joanna; Waterhouse, Hannah; Iles, Alastair; Karp, Daniel S.; Kremen, Claire; Bowles, Timothy M. (Taylor & Francis, 2022-09-14)
    In the face of myriad environmental challenges associated with industrial agriculture, some farmers and researchers have looked to diversified farming systems as a promising alternative. Despite well-documented ecological benefits, diversification practices remain rare in many regions of the U.S, even amongst organic farmers. Our study focuses on organic farmers in the Central Coast region of California, an area that has played a crucial role in the rise of organic agriculture over the last several decades. Through 20 interviews with farmers who all grow lettuce and 8 interviews with technical assistance providers, we investigate the persistent barriers that growers in this region face in adopting diversification practices including cover cropping, compost application, crop rotation, insectary strips, and hedgerows. We find that high land rents, the predominance of short-term leases, stringent food safety standards, and other supply chain pressures significantly hamper the adoption of diversification practices. In order to surmount these barriers and increase adoption, solutions must be pursued at three interconnected levels: innovation at the farm level, and policy change at the technical and structural levels. Locally-informed, integrated, and innovative policies across these three levels must be explored to support the creation of a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable food system.