For decades, a single philosophy has prevailed inside the Fresno State agriculture department. Whether it was growing grapes or almonds or producing milk, students were taught that the best way to farm – indeed the only way – was to rely on conventional methods.

The university, in short, reflected the bottom-line maxim of industrial agriculture: pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. But over the past few years, a quiet shift has taken place inside the agriculture department.

For the first time, Fresno State is offering a course in organic farming and has invited one of the Valley's premier organic vegetable growers to lecture its students. At the same time, a group of younger, more progressive teachers has replaced a set of veteran professors who regarded the tenets of organic farming with skepticism, if not disdain.

This shift in ideology has literally taken root on a patch of soil across from the campus dairy and tucked behind the Rue and Gwen Gibson Farm Market at Barstow and Chestnut avenues. Organic beets, garlic, carrots and broccoli, row after perfect row, are ready to be harvested.

This 3-acre plot may pale in comparison to the organic programs at other agriculture schools across the state, but it's a definite nod to a different philosophy. While conventional farming remains the bread and butter of Fresno State agriculture, 12 more acres of organic crops will be added to the campus' 1,000-acre farm in the next year or two.

"I think it was probably a little slow in coming, but understandable given that there were a number of older faculty in the department. That tends to keep things a little bit constant," said Andrew Lawson, department chair of plant science. "I think that with new faculty coming into the department, we've implemented organic fairly quickly. The new faculty saw that as something that needed to be changed."

Dave Goorahoo, who teaches the organic production class at Fresno State, welcomes the shift.

"We are moving in the right direction," he said. "It's always good to move much faster, but we need support to move in that direction.

"Land is one thing, but we need equipment and funding."

Tom Willey, a respected organic farmer and owner of T & D Willey Farms, said the nod to organic was long overdue. "By having a more progressive educational agenda, I think they would attract a broader student population," he said.

Willey took several undergraduate agriculture courses at Fresno State for two years in the mid-1970s. "I was trained as a conventional farmer at Fresno State," he said.

Willey started his farm in 1981, using conventional production systems, but switched to organic farming in 1987 after he noticed that each year he had to increase the amount of chemicals he pumped into his field to produce an adequate crop.

A few weeks ago, Willey was pleased to be invited for the first time to talk to an agriculture topic class about organic production. Students are visiting his Madera farm to see his methods up close.

"I found the students to be very open to the idea that agriculture is just an experiment and we don't know how well it's going to work in the future," he said.

Other schools ahead

After a class in organic farming planned for spring of 2006 failed to attract enough students, Goorahoo began teaching the organic production course as a topic class in spring of 2008. The class was formalized into a stand-alone course this semester and will be offered each spring semester.