Stephen Paul (left) and his son John Paul (right) stand on their 70-acre field of peach and nectarine trees in Selma. John, a fourth generation farmer, is utilizing generations of family knowledge, and the newest technologies to bring back the family farm. Photo by Frank Lopez

No one ever said growing food on a farm is easy, but resurrecting a family farming operation is a much taller challenge.

At Pipco Farms in Selma, John Paul, 29, is a fourth-generation farmer who has been working to bring his family’s farm back to life, using both generational wisdom and cutting-edge technology.

Pipco Farms was founded by John’s great-great grandfather, Armenian immigrant Paul Paul, in the 1930s.

He immigrated to Fresno with his family in 1904 around age 8.

The family grew Thompson Seedless grapes for raisin production, incorporating as the Pipco Fruit Co. in 1947.

From 1947 until farming operations ceased in 1995, the company had 1,800 acres between Fresno County and Madera county in stone fruit, table grapes, wine grapes and other specialty crops.

Bankruptcy proceedings and legal entanglements with a shipping marketer — along with deaths in the family and some family jealousies — led to the closure of the farming side of the company.

Stephen Paul, John’s father, said the fact that the company is still around after these challenges proves its strength.

“We were deemed as bad operators, but we were not,” Stephen said. “Look at where we are today and where everybody else is not. You can’t be an operator and survive without being innovative.”

Stephen said he has been utilizing the latest technology for decades now, turning to the internet in the late 1980s for weather reports and later launching the first online live catalogue in the U.S.

In the mid 1990s, the company hired computer programmers to build upon open source software to develop a shopping cart for Bouquet of Fruits, Inc., which Stephen and his wife founded in 1987.

While the rest of the world saw Bouquet of Fruits as a gift basket company, the family realized they were a tech company.

The emerging digital world and the company’s early adoption is the world John grew up in.

With the help of his mother and father, as well as uncles and family friends, John said he is proud to be able to stand on his own farmland.

John is the founder of Cultivated Technology Group, Inc., a tech company providing software solutions for the agriculture, education and automotive industries.

Cultivated custom makes software and provides IT assistance, consulting, web design and maintenance.

“It’s my honor to have Pipco Fruit Co. back up and running and to be able to honor someone’s belief in me by growing the business,” John said. “It didn’t stay stagnant.”

With the custom software designed at Cultivated, they aim to bring people closer to where their food is sourced.

Every day is a new challenge, he said, and one must pay attention to conditions in the field.

It took four years to start producing nectarines and peaches on his 70 acres in Selma, with John relying on more than 70 years of family farming experience as his guide.

Challenges do remain. John said labor represents 80% of operational costs. But he is proud to be an Equitable Food Initiative Certified Farmer, which cultivates a healthier, safer and more sustainable produce supply chain by combining food safety, pesticide management and the fair treatment of workers, he said.

“That means that Pipco Farms has to meet the highest standards of farm labor from a social responsibility standpoint. That is something that not a lot of people are doing, even at a large scale,” John said.

The hope is that social responsibility will breed market response.

When it comes to regulations, local politicians can be out of touch with agriculture, but walking on his farm can change that, he said.

The narrative of farmers mistreating their laborers doesn’t hold up with younger farmers, John said, highlighting employees that have been with the family company for over 35 years. 

Stephen said that politicians need to be willing to put the work in to understand the whole situation and apply the right solutions.

Every farmer’s goal is to pass the farm to the next generation, and John’s hope is to keep the farm alive so that he can hand it down and continue the family legacy.