Sacramento Valley-area growers and an interdisciplinary team of UC Davis scientists have reached the midpoint in a unique 12-year experiment comparing the results of organic, low-input and conventional farming practices on key area crops, including tomatoes for processing. The experiment is beginning to yield some answers to help explain why the low-input and organic systems are performing as well (both in terms of yield and biologically) as conventional. "We're now past the transitional phase and are beginning to see some longer term trends," says Steve Temple, a UC Davis agronomist. "We're not seeing the great yield differences between conventional and organically- grown plots we observed the first few years of the project. Now we're trying to understand why, by focusing on the soil processes and other mechanisms that affect production." Media are invited to attend field-day activities Thursday, June 23, including tours of main research plots, visits to new experiments in progress, demonstrations of specialized equipment, and a question-and-answer panel with researchers, growers and farm advisors.