Although California is often seen as the epicenter of environmentalism, that hasn’t been the case with the state’s diverse, arid and irrigated cropping systems. Degraded soils and endangered water supplies have created major challenges for growers, says Jeff Mitchell.

The conservation specialist for University of California-Davis and founding member the state’s Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation Center will outline the recent focus on economics and soil health driving no-till and strip-till adoption in California. And he’ll highlight several examples of reduced disturbance production system innovation spanning the spectrum from processing tomatoes to dairy silage to organic vegetables.