Kevin Lunny - Drakes Bay Family Farms

We hear your farm has a mission. That’s rather unique.

We have the privilege to be the stewards of Drakes Estero, one of the most important natural resources within Pt. Reyes National Seashore. I think it requires a mission. Our mission is: be good to the environment and get the best tasting and highest quality food possible to the local community.

How did your family come to cultivate the Historic G Ranch and Drakes Estero?

My children are 4th generation farmers. My grandfather worked on the waterfront in San Francisco. He was in the steam ship business in global transportation. His brother in-law wanted to buy a dairy out in a place called Pt. Reyes but he didn’t have the financial capability to do it, so my grandfather backed him. His brother-in-law didn’t last very long, so the bank said to my grandfather, “you’re the proud new owner of a dairy farm”. He said “great, I’ll take a sabbatical from my job, get the dairy’s feet back on the ground and then come back to the city.” This was in the 1940’s. After 6 months he realized he was never going to go back to the city. He loved it. My father grew up here, and we’ve been here ever since. In the 1970’s we transitioned from a dairy to a beef operation. We were a conventional beef operation until about 8 years ago when we transitioned to an organic production, using more sustainable practices. Since then we’ve become certified organic and are marketing our product locally, taking the next step in a truly sustainable production.

The oyster farm has been in production for about 100 years. Our neighbors who where running it before us decided it was time to go, and we recognized that this is really the most fabulous food production that we have in the park. It’s really the best example of the working landscape. It’s part of our local cultural tradition. It’s a diverse food source in a County that needs diversity.

How many acres do you cultivate between your beef, artichokes, and oysters?

It’s about 1400 acres of pasture for the beef, and about 5 acres so far for the artichokes and about 1100 acres for the shellfish.

How many employees do you have? Where are they from?

Most of our employees now are at the oyster farm. My Mom and Dad run the ranch, and I help. We have one employee and he comes everyday. We have about 40 employees at the oyster farm. Most of them come from Mexico, a lot of them live here locally on the Pt. Reyes Peninsula. The local dairies provide jobs for the men, so we actually employ more women than we do men at the oyster farm. They usually don’t have job opportunities this close to home. It’s great for them, it’s great for us.

Where do oysters fit in the Marin agricultural picture?

Marin County agriculture is 99% grass-based. We have a lot of milk and beef. The last 1% represents row crops, vineyards, and shellfish. Shellfish is the number four product in the county. Our farm is 85% of Marin’s shellfish growing area, and the most pristine body of water in California. If we want a secure local food system that works, we need to have food diversity. Oysters are a great diverse protein source.

What are the environmental benefits of oyster production?

We grow our oysters by hanging them from wooden racks in the bay. It’s a Japanese method that produces a clean, fresh-tasting oyster and is environmentally friendly. You’re looking at 100 years of oyster production in Drakes Estero and it still has a pristine wilderness-like quality. We can produce ten times the amount of protein per acre growing oysters than we can raising livestock on our neighboring ranch. We don’t feed. We don’t fertilize. There is so little energy used to produce so much food.

The oysters also provide their ecosystem with a number of services, including filtration. We know this by looking at the local water shed. The bay has fabulous water quality but if you sample the water coming in from the contributing creeks, some are pretty high in Nitrogen and Phosphorous. Not to say that is terrible, but it is a result of this being an agricultural community, we have livestock in every acre around Drakes Estero. Yet the bay is still pristine. That is part due, at least in my opinion, to the oysters capability to filter those nutrients out. Phosphorous and the Nitrogen are completely unavailable in suspension like that to sub-aquatic life, so they are effectively pollutants. But if you let the shellfish filter it, it converts those nutrients into a high-protein that we can remove from the water. So we’re actually taking pollutants and removing them from the water in the shape of food. That is a pretty special role that any animal can have in an ecosystem, especially in a farming operation, that’s really rare.

Is it true that you refused to ship your oysters cross-country?

Yep. I truly believe in a local food system that celebrates what we grow here regionally. There is already a huge demand for oysters in the Bay Area. We don’t think it would be in line with our values to make the extra nickel by shipping to New York, Chicago or Southeast Asia. We’ve made it a priority to keep every piece of our operation local. We produce our oyster seed on-site and have the only license in the State to shuck and package our oysters here on the farm. After all that, why would we ship it away? We want our neighbors to enjoy what is growing in their region.

How can the agricultural community support the transition of producers to growing organically?

It is very scary and the learning curve is tough. What helped us were University Cooperative Extension's workshops and Steve Quirt's consultation from the UC Extension. Give the conventional growers the opportunity to learn because they are there. They want to see their business survive. They want their children to be interested so that this tradition will go on. They care about their land. Marin and Sonoma counties are full of fabulous family farms. These aren’t factory farms. Some are organic, some are grass-fed, some are conventional, but they’re all good people running nice family farms.

I think if they’re given the tools that would enable them to add value to their product they will learn about what farming organically does for the environment. You almost don’t have to push that part. That part comes. Then they start realizing the possibilities. The differences we’ve seen on this ranch have been wonderful. Our weed problem has reduced. We have almost zero weeds and we don’t have a thistle problem because we’re using a natural system. We see beneficial bugs coming back into our soil. We’ve really seen a difference. That comes given the tools to learn how to do it, how to get certified. And if you are certified, how to raise that animal organically. Workshops to show people how you do it is and to gain confidence in it.

What do you love about being a farmer?

Everything. I’ve always loved working with the animals and the science of it. But I have a different answer than five or ten years ago. I love the interaction with the community. We never had that before. We always hear about how great it is for the customer to know their farmer. The way I look at it is we’re really fortunate to have a County of eaters that appreciate their local food. In this big commodity world, where it’s all based on shipping, the connection is lost. Only the farmers that market locally meet the people they are selling their products to. I love that!

To learn more about Drakes Bay Family Farm please visit their website at:

http://www.drakesbayfamilyfarms.com/