County Corner Highlighting county Farm Bureaus working on behalf of California’s agricultural communities When farmers, ranchers speak up, they get results
JOIN OUR TEAM Become a Grower Relationship Professional for The Morning Star Packing Co. As in most rural California counties, Butte County’s agriculture community is small, but our voices are big. After all, according to a 2020 American Farm Bureau Federation survey, nearly nine in 10 Americans—88%—say they trust farmers. We have credibility, and our local experiences in Butte County demonstrate what happens when farmers use it. If we don’t tell our story, someone else may try to do it for us. In Butte County, our Farm Bureau members are talking. People are hearing us, and we’re seeing the results. The TWD formation process took five years of public meetings and applications, with Farm Bureau members speaking before the Water Commission and Board of Supervisors, as well as gathering at town hall meetings and writing numerous newspaper letters to the editor. A long and bumpy path got us to the Butte LAFCO meeting. More than 80 farmers and ag community leaders within the Vina Subbasin boundaries packed the hearing room. Many passionately and authentically spoke about the need for local control over groundwater in the subbasin. Some donned TWD hats or stickers. All stood in solidarity when asked to show their cumulative strength. Butte County agriculture prevailed, once again, with a 7-0 LAFCO vote approving the application, which will lead to our new Tuscan Water District. Ready to start a conversation? Phone: 530.666.6600 | Email: agjobs@morningstarco.com Bring your passion for the agricultural industry. Put your networking and relationship-oriented skills to use. Further your personal development within a Mission Focused Self-Management culture. Salary Range: $120k - $200k Morning Star is a tomato ingredient producer with three factories located in California’s Central Valley. We supply nearly 40% of the domestic market and 10% world-wide. of the supervisorial district map preferred by our rural residents. Butte County Farm Bureau members didn’t stop at redistricting. Voices of farmers also made the difference in February before the Butte Local Agency Formation Commission as the commission was deciding the fate of the Tuscan Water District’s application for formation in the county. The Tuscan Water District was to be a basin-wide water district with locally elected rep- resentation. It was formed by local farmers and agricultural landowners to import surface water to reduce the need for groundwater for agricultural and domestic needs. The TWD proposal for managing our Vina Subbasin, a nearly 185,000-acre area of the Sacramento Valley Groundwater Basin, met requirements under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
Colleen Cecil Executive director
When Butte County farmers and ranchers talk, people listen. The past 12 months have seen Butte County’s agriculture community turn out in large numbers for critical public meetings, perhaps even more than our farmers and ranchers get together at their favorite coffee shops. Late last year, our members rallied to influence redistricting, an important process California counties undertake every 10 years. Butte County’s redistricting was especially crucial after the 2018 Camp Fire, California’s most destructive and deadliest in history. It burned more than 150,000 acres and destroyed 18,000 structures. Upward of 24,000 people lost their homes in the towns of Paradise and Concow. Butte County was forever changed, and our population was scattered. Redistricting is the process of updating the population count of a city, county and the state for the purpose of drawing lines for city council, county supervisor, state Assembly and Senate, and Congressional seats. Our challenge was acute—because 24,000 people from Butte County were no longer living where they were during the last redistricting in 2011. As a result, our county supervisorial lines were going to have to shift, perhaps dramatically. The Butte County Farm Bureau took an active and early position. It reminded the Board of Supervisors of the importance of having more than one supervisor representing the agri- cultural areas. With more than 500,000 acres of ag and forested land, home to our county’s rural populations, it was imperative that those rural voices have sufficient representation on the board. But a supervisorial district map, proposed by a county consultant, would have allocated just one seat for agricultural regions. Our Farm Bureau evaluated different supervisorial district map options—prepared by the county consultant and the community—and chose a version that allowed urban areas to be balanced with rural populations. Under this plan, four of five supervisors would have agricultural land in their districts. But the support of Farm Bureau alone was not going to be enough to convince the su- pervisors to vote for our chosen district map. We needed rural residents to speak up. So, we asked—and our members and the ag community delivered. Farm Bureau members sent emails and letters to their supervisors. They attended meet- ings and spoke during public comment periods on the importance of rural representation on the Board of Supervisors and the need for a map to accomplish this aim. We then asked members to ask their family members and neighbors to write more letters and emails. Through three email campaigns, plus compiling a stack of individually signed letters, the Butte County Farm Bureau helped deliver the voice of rural communities to the Board of Supervisors on redistricting. The effort prevailed. The board voted 3-2 in favor Scholarship winners named Seven students pursuing careers in agriculture have been awarded scholarships ad- ministered by the California Farm Bureau Scholarship Foundation. Two students are recipients of scholarships from the Agricultural Lenders Society of California. Olivia Hanna of Siskiyou County is an agricultural business major at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Katie Brown of Mendocino County will be attending California State University, Chico, to study agricultural business. Reagan Denny of Sutter County is the recipient of the Carolyn S. Richardson Memorial Scholarship. She will be attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Bailey Scheuber of Stanislaus County, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo agricultural systems management major, is the recipient of the Frederick J. Heringer Honorary Award. Travis Smith of Ventura County, who will be attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, is the recipient of the Howard P. Wackman II Perpetual Memorial Award scholarship. Cameron Heinitz of San Joaquin County, a wine and viticulture major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, is the recipient of the John H. Wiechman Memorial Scholarship. Zakary Schall of Lassen County was awarded the Curt & Joan Moran Scholarship and was among recipients of the Rustici Livestock and Rangeland Scholarship. He will be attending Lassen Community College to study natural resource management.
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August 24, 2022 Ag Alert 13
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