Imperial County Farm Bureau honored at state meeting
EL CENTRO — Imperial County Farm Bureau was recently named County of the Year during the annual meeting of the California Farm Bureau Federation held in San Diego last week.
“We do a lot of work here on the local level, and it’s nice to have the recognition from the California Farm Bureau to acknowledge what work we do for our members and to advocate for the agriculture industry here in Imperial Valley,” said Imperial County Farm Bureau Executive Director Brea Mohamed.
The distinction was for farm bureaus numbering 500 to 799 members; Imperial County has 514 members.
“It’s always a hard choice, there’s a lot of good work being done by lots of farm bureaus,” California Farm Bureau spokesman Dave Kranz told the Imperial Valley Press on Wednesday.
Kranz said Imperial was chosen based on a set of five criteria, including policies at the local level; activities to retain and recruit members; work to develop local farm bureau leaders; promoting ag in the county and supporting ag education; and public outreach through the media, social media, etc.
“Its services include workshops and training opportunities for members, sponsorship of a daily farm report on a local radio station and publication of monthly columns in a local newspaper. During 2018, the Imperial County Farm Bureau hosted its most successful scholarship fundraiser ever, and distributed $34,000 in scholarships to local students. It also helped in planning the first Imperial Valley Ag Expo and participated in organizing a Saladero Contest in which teams compete in using locally grown produce to create the best salad,” according to a news release from the California Farm Bureau.
Mohamed said the award came as a surprise. She added Imperial officials knew they were a finalist, but the win, “It’s great,” she said. “This is the first time in recent years that we have won that recognition.”
Among the year’s highlights, Mohamed said, was an event the bureau staged called “Read with a Farmer,” in which the bureau partnered with the Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association and the Farm Smart program from the Desert Research and Extension Center to put farmers and agricultural professionals in third-grade classrooms around the county on National Read a Book Day to read “Who Grew My Soup?” by Tom Darbyshire.
Another highlight, she said, was the fact that Imperial County was one of fewer than 10 counties to meet its membership goals for the year.