Among the Few Left in His Field

Paul Murai belongs to a select society.

Fewer than 50 farmers are left in Orange County, and Murai feels lucky that he can still count himself among them.

He does not own the dusty 300 acres in south Irvine where he grows strawberries, tomatoes, green beans and artichokes. The land is owned by the Irvine Co., and awaits the inevitable conversion into yet another office park or shopping center.

Farm workers harvesting the last of his strawberry crop are often enveloped by the deafening roar of military jets overhead, on training exercises from the nearby El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

The Marine base is scheduled to close in three years, which Murai, who has farmed in Orange County most of his life, fears will prompt development in neighboring areas, including the land to which he has entrusted his life and livelihood for the last four years.

It is a precarious life, Murai said, subject to the vagaries of weather, the inequities of the marketplace, the wrath of consumers and the inevitability of development.

A second-generation Orange County farmer, Murai does not expect to retire wealthy. The 50-year-old Laguna Hills resident, owner and operator of M & M Farms, is not even sure he’ll still be a farmer by the time he reaches retirement age. But he cherishes the work.

“There were probably about 300 to 400 farmers in Orange County 30 years ago. Typically, Orange County has always been a small-farmer county, not like the San Joaquin Valley where they grow thousands of acres. We can’t stop progress, but I just have to hope there will be a certain amount of agriculture left in Orange County to preserve this heritage and this way of life.”

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Two-thirds of Murai’s crops are strawberries, which are beginning to recover from four years of low prices due to overproduction throughout the state. But much of his current crop was damaged by winter rains.

“Farming is like a roller coaster. You can have good years, a good climate and good markets. Then you have poor years. You can count on it,” said Murai, who became president of the Orange County Farm Bureau in June.

“We get a bad rap, because we get blamed for high prices. But supermarkets have a tendency to maximize their profits on produce. And so produce is generally marked up at least 300% to 500% over what they buy it for. A lot of consumers will see these prices and say, ‘God, look how much these farmers are charging for these tomatoes.’ But it doesn’t really work that way. The supermarkets have to cover their overhead, but they still make a pretty good profit.”

Murai’s parents moved to Santa Ana in 1949, starting over as farmers after they were forced to spend four years in an internment camp during World War II. They farmed in Texas, where Murai was born, for about three years after the war. They were reluctant to return to California, fearing prejudice against Asian Americans. But the weather proved too harsh and they were persuaded by friends in California to return.

“When they were sent off to an internment camp in Poston, Ariz., the only things they could keep was what they could carry with them. It was pretty tough on them--they lost everything. Once they came back to California, my dad worked for several farmers because they had nothing. By the early 1950s, he borrowed money and started to do his own farming. He had the knowledge, he just needed the money to buy some equipment, some seeds and fertilizer. His first farm was in Garden Grove.”

Murai and his older brother eventually took over operations of Murai Farms. He left the family farm four years ago to start his own business, M&M; Farms, which now employs about 100 workers. Strawberries, his main crop, have been a money-loser in recent years for farmers throughout Orange County. They are the county’s biggest crop.

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“Farmers are their own worst enemies sometimes. When prices are good for a certain commodity, then other farmers want to plant that commodity. About five years ago, the prices for strawberries were very good. But now farmers in California have over-planted strawberries.

“And the unseasonable, high amounts of rainfall in the last few years has damaged the strawberries. We have to throw a percentage of these strawberries away. You would think that if there’s less strawberries, then the prices would increase. But unfortunately with rain damage, the strawberries are of inferior quality and we can’t do any shipping. It’s harder to get higher prices for something that’s not very good.”

Murai also grows vine-ripened tomatoes, which taste better than tomatoes that are picked while still green. But he is caught between consumers who want a better-tasting tomato and retailers who want a tougher tomato that will survive the trip to the supermarket. Last year, Murai grew 200 acres of tomatoes that were genetically engineered to possess both qualities of taste and durability. But the experimental crop was not resistant enough to disease.

“I thought we could probably carve a little niche out in this area for tomatoes. We got through all the rules and regulations with the FDA, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. Under laboratory conditions it was great, but in the real world they didn’t hold up. We couldn’t sell them.”

Against Murai’s best advice, his daughter, Kamela, and son Brian joined the business after graduating from college.

“I told them to get their degrees and get a good job, but they wanted to help. Farming is certainly not a lucrative business, but it’s my heritage; it’s my way of life. So I’ll just take the lumps and bumps as it goes. I just can’t see myself changing and getting a new career. But I do worry about my children.”

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Profile: Paul Murai

Age: 50

Hometown: San Antonio, Texas

Residence: Laguna Hills

Family: Wife Yvonne and three grown children

Background: Second-generation Orange County farmer; attended Orange Coast College and Cal State Long Beach; worked in family business, Murai Farms, for 24 years; started M & M Farms in 1992

Farm Bureau: Named president of the Orange County Farm Bureau in June

On farming’s future: “We know that over a period of time, the farms will continue to be diminished with urbanization. That’s progress. But this is my career and my livelihood, and I would like to pursue this as long as there is farmland available.”

Source: Paul Murai; Researched by RUSS LOAR/For The Times