One of Sun Valley Floral Farms guiding principles is treating neighbors the way you want to be treated. CEO Lane DeVries has lived in Humboldt County for 37 years and has a high sensitivity for being a good and responsible neighbor in our community.
2 years ago Sun Valley found itself in the middle of a fire storm over a small plot of land, that was sprayed in the Spring of 2019 to stop the growth of a cover crop so Iris could be planted a month or two later.
This parcel of land was in proximity to a school, and the company made a commitment not to farm the adjacent field the following year to address concerns of the school.
Sun Valley also committed to searching for alternatives to Round Up.
In the Spring of 2020, the company found another parcel of land on Seidel rd and applied an alternative to Roundup called Ecomazapyr based on a suggestion of a government official.
This alternative turned out to be a full-blown disaster, as the residual affect of this material caused over half a million dollars in crop losses.
In the last few months, the agronomists at Sun Valley searched for other alternatives, some of which were on the “do not use” list for Rainforest Alliance certification. Since Sun Valley is RFA certified, those alternatives were quickly discarded.
Roundup is an allowed material by Rainforest Alliance, it is also permitted under California law for the purposes for which it was used.
The company truly would have preferred to use something else if other alternatives were available, DeVries even talked to Greg King about this, in a conversation in November 2020 explaining the painful outcome of the Ecomazapyr experiment and to see if he or any of the board members of the Siskiyou Land Trust would have other suggestions, to no avail.
Sun Valley continues its commitment to reducing the use of pesticides and we welcome alternatives when and wherever available.
