YF&R chapter establishes thriving community gardens
and then used the proceeds to build gar- dens throughout the region, said Lindsey Mebane, the group’s president. The farm- ersmarket, featuring thousandsof pounds of produceandotherproductsdonatedby local growers, has nowbecome anannual event—except for this year due to thepan- demic, she added. Workingwith their county FarmBureau board of directors and local farmers, Mebane said securing food donations for the farmersmarkethasbeen“prettyeasy… becauseeveryonewants togivesomehelp,” and “think it’s a great thing that we’re try- ing tohelp feedpeople.” Anything left over
from themarket goes to local food banks, she added, sonodonations arewasted. Not onlydoes the farmersmarket show- case the region’s agricultural bounty, so that “everyone knows where the food comes from,”shesaid,butbuildinggardens also “teaches people about what we do.” “We really try to partner with somebody that is going to be able to keep the garden going and also be able to teach the people how to grow food andbe able tohelp them providemealsforthemselves,”Mebanesaid. In addition to building the gardens, the
ByChing Lee (Editor’s note: This is the second install- ment of a three-part Ag Alert® series high- lighting indi- vidual s and c ommi t t e e s participating in the Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers program.) Forward Moving it Efforts to help hungry Americans often come in the form of food and monetary donations, but what if you also empow- er people to help themselves by teaching themhow to grow their own food? Building community gardens—and teaching people the skills to maintain them—has become a cornerstone of the work being done by Kern County Young Farmers and Ranchers, whose mem- bers earned the California Farm Bureau FederationHarvest for All award for their efforts to fight hunger. Nowinits18thyear, thenationalHarvest for All campaign is spearheaded bymem- bers of Farm Bureau’s YF&R program to help provide food to Americans in need.
Last year, YF&R programs across the U.S. donated26.2millionpoundsof food, spent 14,380 hours volunteering and contribut- edmore than $494,700 to their local food banks, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. The idea for building gardens took root about five years ago, when Kern County YF&R set up a farmers market to give away produce in exchange for donations,
See MOVING, Page 16
PROTECT YOUR PASSION TO
Comment Continued from Page 2
would indeed reassess agricultural prop- erty suchas “adairybarn, foodprocessing facilities or wineries.” Apparently, thatwasbeforetheydidsome pollingandrealizedvotersdon’twant topay thehigher foodpricesthatwouldstemfrom increasing taxes on farms. Sonow, thepro- ponentsandtheirpoliticalalliesthroughout the state are singing a different tune, trying to sell the line that Proposition 15 exempts agriculturecompletely. Their flip-flopping and self-contradic- tion would be laughable if they weren’t spending so much money spreading misinformation—up to $50million at last count. It’s not just the usual suspects from Sacramentowho are funding the Yes side; they also got Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg topony up$10million tohelp raise our taxes. So, you can see what we’re up against. That’s why we need farmers and ranch- ers to keep working, all the way through Nov. 3, to tell the simple truth: Proposition 15 exposes farmers and ranchers to steep tax hikes—andwhen you tax farmers and ranchers, itmeans food costs go up. A tax on farmers and ranchers is a tax on everyone. ManyCaliforniansalreadystruggledwith the high cost of living before COVID-19, whichjustmadethingsworse.Thelast thing our stateneeds is to tax farmers and ranch- ers and jackup thecost of food. Getthefactsandfindouthowyoucanhelp by visiting theFamilyFarmersAgainst Prop 15websiteat cafarmersagainstprop15.com. Vote no on Proposition 15. (Jamie Johansson is president of the California FarmBureau Federation.)
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1 By direct written premium, A.M. Best (2017). The Farm Bureau, FB, and the FB National logo are trademarks of the American Farm Bureau Federation and used with permission under license by Nationwide. Nationwide, the Nationwide N and Eagle and Nationwide is on your side are service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. CountryChoice is a service mark of Nationwide Agribusiness Insurance Company. © 2019 Nationwide GPO-0486CA (06/19)
October 21, 2020 Ag Alert 3
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