Midpoint cofounders Myers and Fiorello. Photos by Maya Florello courtesy Midpoint Organic Transplantst.
The only all-organic vegetable and flower transplant nursery between Los Angeles and Santa Cruz begins production for farms from 0.2 to 200 acres
OJAI — New nursery opens its doors to help small, organic growers keep their certification. Midpoint Organic Transplants, located in Ojai, is the only all-organic vegetable and flower transplant nursery between Los Angeles and Santa Cruz, and it sells to organic growers across Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties.
“We are thrilled to welcome Midpoint Organic Transplants to the Ojai food and farming community,” said Whitney Clapper, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Farmhand Foundation. “By providing organic farmers with the high-quality starts they need to keep growing healthy food, Midpoint is filling a vital role in our regional food system. Having this resource close to home strengthens our local growers, supports the continued production of fresh, thoughtfully grown food, and helps build a more resilient agricultural community for the future. Farmhand Foundation was proud to help Midpoint get off the ground through grant writing, encouragement, and plenty of cheerleading along the way, and we look forward to continuing to support their work however we can as they grow.”
Several transplant nurseries in the region run organic programs alongside their conventional production, however those programs are built for midsize and large farms, with high per-variety minimums and delivery thresholds that smaller accounts cannot meet. The only nursery in the tri-county area with an organic program that served smaller growers lost its certification in January 2025. Since then, smaller growers have had three options: propagate their own starts and pull labor away from the field, conform their farming systems to the constraints of the large nurseries, or drop organic certification. Three farms in the region have already surrendered their certification. A fourth is at risk.
“The organic programs out there are built for farms that order crop varieties by the ten-thousands,” said co-founder Shannon Myers, who has spent nearly 20 years in commercial vegetable seedling production. “A grower who wants 40 trays across six lettuce varieties is not an account those programs are set up to take. That is the grower we built Midpoint for.”
“Having supplied our community with farm goods since 2016, I’ve seen the struggle of finding trustworthy, local organic transplants up close. Midpoint is stepping up with the exact support our local farmers and gardeners have been waiting for,” said Clayton Garland, manager of Armour Ranch in Santa Ynez and former farmers market vendor.
Midpoint grows on one acre of a Valencia orange ranch owned by Mesa, a transitional housing and workforce development nonprofit in Ojai serving young adults ages 18 to 24 who are experiencing homelessness. Their land use agreement includes a commitment to hire Mesa residents, who will work in production and delivery while learning crop scheduling and organic integrated pest management techniques.
“Mesa exists to support young adults facing homelessness to imagine the life they want for themselves and to give them the opportunities to pursue that future. Providing meaningful work opportunities with real training is imperative. Midpoint will offer our residents both in an industry that defines our region and isn’t going anywhere. Partnering with Midpoint to utilize a portion of our land for certified organic transplant production means the land is supporting our residents and farms in our larger community at the same time,” said Dan Parziale, Mesa’s Executive Director.
About Midpoint Organic Transplants
Midpoint Organic Transplants LLC is an all-organic vegetable and flower transplant nursery in Ojai, California, founded in January 2026 by Shannon Myers and Christopher Fiorello. Myers holds an MSc in Agronomy from the University of Copenhagen and a BSc in Horticulture and Crop Sciences from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. From 2020 to 2024, Fiorello co-managed the Ventura County Senior Nutrition Farm, a 2.5-acre regenerative organic farm in Oxnard.