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Neighborly concerns tie first MAEAP-verified greenhouses
Mark Elzinga, right, is president of the company that earned the state's first MAEAP greenhouse verification, which was celebrated on the Kalamazoo-area facility with help from Don Koivisto, Michigan's director of agriculture.
They're a couple hundred miles apart, but there's one thing close to the hearts of the first two greenhouse operators verified in the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP).
Both Mark Elzinga and Ben Sklarczyk lead long-time family operations. Both - as you might expect from ag businesses which participate in the MAEAP program - are conscientious about the environment over which they have custody. Along with that, both saw the need to cut energy costs and increase efficiency well before the MAEAP greenhouse system was rolled out.
But for all their similarities, there's one thing that stands above the rest. Both see the need - and view it as their obligation - to leave their little corners of the world better than when they started.
"My grandfather always said we should leave the land better for the next generation," said Sklarczyk, representing the third generation to lead Sklarczyk Seed Farm in Johannesburg. "That's something my father (Don) believes in, and so do I. Being part of the MAEAP program is one way we can assure we're doing that."
Elzinga, too, president of Elzinga & Hoeksema Greenhouses in Portage, believes in the stewardship philosophy.
"My daughter hasn't yet decided if she'll continue as the third generation here, but even if she doesn't, it's important to us to leave the operation better than it was when we started," he said. "We've hired a couple young guys with the future in mind, but if that doesn't work out, having four acres of organic production and another eight conventional acres under glass that are all MAEAP-verified makes it more marketable if we decide to sell it someday. I've been advised to have an exit strategy, and that's something I've thought about, because it was only two weeks ago I was 26. Now I'm 46."
While seeing possibilities beyond his leadership for the impressive, innovative greenhouse facility, Elzinga learned from his father about taking care of the environment, and he said when he investigated organic growing, it opened his eyes to more and better environmental stewardship.
"With assistance, guidance and cooperation from both MSUE and the Michigan Groundwater Stewardship Program, we have been able to successfully navigate a path for achieving our goal of responsible stewardship and accountable sustainability," Elzinga said during the ceremony that honored his operation as the first greenhouse verified in the MAEAP Greenhouse system.
"The Greenhouse*A*Syst tool provided a clear route to MAEAP verification, which validated our efforts," he said.
Besides adding value to the business, the verification process showed Elzinga the value of being educated in environmental stewardship as well as business - both for the conventional and organic systems - and recommended that every greenhouse grower get involved.
"MAEAP verification wasn't easy," he said, "but it wasn't too bad."
More difficult was the construction of an energy saving facility that contains the third-largest greenhouse in Michigan and the 45th largest organic greenhouse in the nation. Heated by 23 miles of in-ground pipes supplied with hot water from 200 deep wells and a closed-loop pressurized water heating system that includes solar panels and high-efficiency condensing boilers, Elzinga said the operation will soon install two wind turbines to go with the thermal system, the largest in the Midwest.
But for all its impressive size, attention to detail keeps the operation ahead of the competition. For the organic operation, Elzinga-Hoeksema uses beneficial insects for pest control and a totally contained worm compost tea for fertilizer. The company also recycles its plastic containers and every scrap of paper that comes through.
Besides all that, and all the other impressive systems in the greenhouse, including a plant tickler to stimulate stems, it's also important, Elzinga said, to learn from people you trust.
"Sometimes a farm needs someone it can trust to help them, and MSU Extension was that," he said. "That and the MAEAP verifier (Josh Appleby)."
When it comes to trust, a large percentage of potato chip growers in the nation - and many around the world - owe their trust in the quality of seed potatoes to Sklarczyk's.
The second greenhouse in the state to get the MAEAP greenhouse verification, Sklarczyk's produces mini-tubers in a lab and a hydroponic greenhouse from tissue culture and provides them to seed potato growers, who in turn supply seed potatoes for chipping markets. But it is the process that produces the trust Frito Lay has in Sklarczyk's operation.
Here's how it works. Frito Lay sends a plant in a test tube from its breeding and research facility in Rhinelander, Wis. Mary Kay Sklarczyk, with help from two other laboratory technicians, takes a cutting from each plant section and places them into growing hormones. After about four weeks, each cutting will produce another plant. More cuttings are taken, and soon, exponential growth fills the lab. The plants are all clones of each other.
When the plants reach three inches tall, they are taken to the hydroponic greenhouse, where, after 35 days, the plants produce a marble-sized mini-tuber, which is harvested and sent to cold storage, awaiting shipment to seed-potato growers, sometimes 18 months later.
"Each plant can be harvested between 12 to 30 times, so the harvest goes on for about six weeks," Sklarczyk said.
The advantage to producing the marble-sized mini tuber, he said, is simple efficiency and disease control.
"It wouldn't be cost-effective to produce larger tubers," he said. "In the traditional way of what we're doing, tubers grow in potting soil, and the seed potato grows to golf-ball size. If it's that big, the seed potato grower will have to cut it, and that opens it to pathogens. Our mini-tubers don't need to be cut, and so they remain free of bacteria and pathogens. Taking a cut potato and putting into soil that's full of pathogens is like cutting off your finger and putting it in some dirt and then wondering why it's infected."
For many years, said Don Sklarczyk, Frito Lay has encouraged its suppliers to embrace practices that are beneficial to the ecosystem.
"Many times, those actions are not only favorable to the environment, but in the long run, the practices also help growers stay sustainable and profitable as a supplier for Frito Lay products," he said.
There was never a reason to do things on the farm any way but the right way, both from business and environmental standpoints, which is why MAEAP verification was important to the Sklarczyks.
"We were verified in the farmstead system first, then in cropping," Ben Sklarczyk said. "Our concern for the environment started on the home farm, which has a 20-acre semi-private lake. Ever since my grandfather, Michael Sklarczyk, we've maintained the quality of that lake, and that was a starting point for us. Even before the other two MAEAP verifications, we've gone above and beyond on the farm, and we've taken the same approach with the greenhouse operation. We were already doing ninety-nine percent of MAEAP's greenhouse requirements, so there weren't a whole lot of changes."
There are always changes when efficiency is involved, though. The next steps the Sklarczyk's will take include additional insulation and efficiency of the greenhouse during cold weather.
"Our in-floor heat boiler is very efficient, but we'll insulate the sidewalls below the plant level and the north walls where there is no impact from the sun," Ben said. That's on top of insulation that already exceeds industry standards, along with infrared cameras that detect heat loss and gain, hydro cooling pads that cut cooling costs in the summer, and energy-saving lighting systems.
And while that's all impressive and efficient and innovative right now, Sklarczyks always keep the next generation in mind, even if it hasn't yet arrived.
"Because of my dad's willingness to take a chance with hybrids, he really opened the eyes of Lays to help him develop the system we have," he said. "There is only one other company in the United States producing mini tubers in the same manner we do. The others grow in potting soil because it's easier, but it's not as efficient or as clean as the hydroponic system my dad designed with Frito Lay."
Obviously, both the Sklarczyks and Elzinga's have passion for their businesses and environments, and even though they're miles apart geographically, they're like neighbors when it comes to doing things right. And no matter how far apart they may be; no matter how far-flung their customers, they're both covered under the MAEAP umbrella now, and that's a safe haven for them and their customers.
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