Steven Cardoza runs Cardoza and Cardoza Farms. He serves on the CCOF Board.
In the early 1990s, Steven Cardoza’s father, Dwane Cardoza, was doing the majority of the work on his 100-acre farm himself, which included applying conventional pesticides. He started to feel more and more ill. “Finally, he said, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’” Steven recalls. “It was taking a toll on him, physically.”
In 1998, Steven’s father became one of the earliest adopters of organic farming methods. “He had to figure out a lot of it by himself, flying by the seat of his pants,” Steven remembers. “I grew up helping him.”
When Steven grew up and moved away from home, at first he wanted a path that would take him away from his early farming memories. However, eight years ago, he experienced a change of heart. “I wanted to give my dad the ability to rest,” he says. “My whole life, he’s always worked nonstop. I remember being six years old, and he’d be gone before I went to school every morning, and he’d be working late every night. If I woke up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water, he’d be in the office, printing things, still working hard. He couldn’t get away from that, even into his 60s, so I decided if I took over the farm, I might be able to force him to slow down and enjoy his golden years more.”
Now, Steven farms 300 acres of organic raisin grapes in Fresno County, California. His father still comes out to help often. “He can’t stop entirely,” Steven notes. “It’s in his DNA.”
Steven values organic, regenerative farming methods because they feels more aligned with nature. “It’s very motivating to know I’m going to have an impact on ecosystems that will last well after I’m dead. That’s what’s driving me to keep doing this.”
At first, Steven was unsure whether he would make a good CCOF Board member, but Vernon Peterson, who held the seat previously, assured Steven that he was being overly modest and that his qualifications were sound. “I have an outrageous amount of respect for Mr. Peterson, so I did it,” Steven says. “I learned a lot. Now I feel like I can contribute to what’s best for CCOF. I’m very pleased with my decision to be on the board.”
Steven remains committed to organic and regenerative agriculture. “What I’ve learned from doing regenerative farming is that I’ll often implement a strategy to solve a problem, and very frequently it only half fixes the problem, but it creates three additional benefits I didn’t see coming, which make it easier to solve my other problems,” he says. “When you use organic methods for everything, the benefits stack, and eventually your problems go away. I don’t have a thorough understanding of all the mechanisms at work, but since going organic, the entire ecosystem has changed. My soil has changed dramatically, and the native plants and animals have returned. It’s good for local ecosystems, the global climate, human health …. If more people farmed like this, we’d have even more cascading benefits.”
