Studying with Mr. Molinar

 Richard Molinar is a retired Small Farm Adviser and professor for the UCCE, Bakersfield Community College, and Cal Poly.

He has worked as an Urban Horticulture Advisor, working with small farms, teaching weed identification and control to licensed applicators and PCA's, coordinated a successful Master Gardener (MG) Program that trained over 350 volunteers. He helped coordinate the first statewide MG conference held in UC Davis in July 1994. And also produced 60 29-minute television shows aired over public access television.

Richard moved to UCCE Fresno County in 1995. He worked with over 1300 Laotian refugees to help them better understand agriculture technology in the United States. He also has employed a Hmong assistant, Michael Yang, to help him with communication and cultural issues in working with this clientele.

Additionally, Richard works with Hispanic, African American, and Caucasian farmers in areas of marketing, regulatory compliance, farm food safety, irrigation, fertilization, pest management and weed control, organic production, and new crops.

Prior to UCCE, Richard was employed for nine years in private industry as a licensed 'Pest Control Adviser' (PCA) for a private weed control firm in Kern and Orange Counties.

Mr. Molinar was also a US Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras for two years, and an alfalfa research assistant. This has been his "Dream Job" for the last 27 years.
[Sources: Here and Here]

Mr. Molinar and Dennis, one of our Students

We had the opportunity to have Mr. Molinar come here to GIT and impart some of his knowledge a few days ago; teaching us about Organic farming, GMOs and Hybrids, Weed Management, Pests, Minerals, Plant Diseases, and a bit about himself – so we decided to do a little interview and learn what he thinks. Don't quote me on what they said though! My memory is only so good, so I summarized!

Interview by Dennis Mellon, transcribed by Garrett

-What were your previous titles?

A Pest Control Advisor (PCA), College professor, Bee keeper, and a Peace Corps Volunteer

-What do you specialize in?

Asian veggies, lemongrass, bitter melons, and sinqua

-What types of projects have you worked on?

Jujubes/lemongrass testing, variety testing in general. Working with small farms.

-What made you decide to help small farms, and us at GIT?

The Peace Corps. Helped many small farms in Honduras, and have a desire to teach people about farming.

-What do you feel about GMO plants?

I'm against it. People don't understand it, so they don't require it to be labeled and we don't know what is in our food - when what we don't know really can hurt us.

-What do you think the biggest problems facing small independent farms are when compared with larger farms?

Marketing. It's hard for small farms to market and sell their produce.

-What do you think, in your experience, is the best general solution to combat pests/weeds?

Solarization - It's like pasteurizing the ground to remove weeds, bacteria, bugs, etc. Very effective and relatively easy to do.

So far we've only had the chance to have one lesson from Mr. Molinar, but the topics we discussed from this first meeting include what was mentioned above (Organics, GMOs, Hybrids, Weeds, Pests, Minerals, and Plant Diseases), as well as the pH levels, structures, and textures of soils.

Here's a summary:

In lesson one, went over what Organic means from the view of different corporations as well as our own opinions, the process to becoming registered Organic, about the nutrients and minerals plants need in the soil, and how the different types of soil affect the plants and how to change them to meet the plant's needs.

Mr. Molinar had us view a sample of a Nematode-infected root system and taught us about different pests, as well as many of the different methods used to get rid of them in both Organic and Commercial farming.

Weed Management was also a very interesting. We learned about things that we use here on the farm, as well as new methods we had not heard of, like Solarization - the process of using the sun and plastic to cook out things from the top layers of soil to prevent diseases, bugs, and weeds.

We also learned about plants that are resistant to various diseases and the hybrid method as to how people enhance these resistances (not that we use hybrids).

One of the most interesting things I learned in this first lesson was that over 70% of many plant problems stem from watering habits.

Mr. Richard Molinar is on our schedule every week now, and we look forward to learning more about farming!

Garrett T

Pictures courtesy of biography sites listed above, other than the one with Dennis. I took that one. :)