Women’s ag group revived after 15 years
EL CENTRO — A group of women are working to bring back the California Women for Agriculture Imperial Valley chapter after it had disbanded about 15 years ago.
A kick-off meeting was held Thursday at the Imperial County Farm Bureau to see if there was even enough interest in the community to restart the chapter.
Organizers were hoping for at least 15 potential members (the base amount of members needed) to show.
As the ICFD meeting room filled up with more than 20 local women, including those who were CWA-IV members 15 years ago, Natalie Peraza let out a sigh of relief.
“We’re huge in agriculture here, but we’re one of the only districts that does not have a California for Women Agriculture chapter right now,” Peraza said. “It’s taken us a little while to get it going, but we’re very excited to get it started.”
Now revived, CWA-IV aims to promote, as well teach the importance of, agriculture in the Valley, and be a legislative advocate for the betterment of local agriculture.
CWA is a statewide, all-volunteer organization in which members are actively engaged in public relations, education and legislative advocacy on behalf of agriculture.
Founded in 1975 in Riverside County, there are currently five districts, 22 chapters and about 2,000 members statewide.
CMW-IV belongs to the Southern District, which also includes Los Angeles, San Diego, Coachella Valley and Blythe.
Those who attended Wednesday’s meeting, as well as CWA members statewide, weren’t necessarily farmers or involved in agriculture as a profession.
As explained on CWA’s official website, “Membership is as diverse as the industry we represent; bankers, lawyers, accountants, marketing professionals, consumers and farmers.”
“You don’t have to be in agriculture to be a part of this,” Peraza told the group during the meeting. “For the friends that didn’t come today because they’re not a part of agriculture or their job doesn’t deal with agriculture, you live in Imperial Valley and it is a dying career.”
While Peraza didn’t know exactly how CMW-IV broke apart years ago, she said she learned why it should be resurrected after attending a teachers’ conference in 2018.
Peraza, a local school teacher, met some CMW members at the Ag in the Classroom convention in Palm Desert. The members were showing teachers what they can do to promote agriculture in their classrooms.
“When I went there, I saw the amount of knowledge and everything that they (CMW members) were sharing and getting to us,” the local teacher said. “I was just amazed. So I thought, ‘We have got to get this happening in Imperial Valley again.’”
Peraza also recalled a past CMW-IV member who took her class in Westmorland on a tour to show how produce gets from the fields to the shelves at Vons in Brawley.
“That was amazing to me,” she said. “A lot of those kids had a better understanding of agriculture here in the Valley and how important it is.”
While her son is currently studying ag business at New Mexico State University to become a fifth-generation farmer in her family, Peraza believed that today’s youth generally don’t have the value of agriculture being instilled in them anymore.
“It’s very important to my family, but the interest in agriculture for young adults and children is just not there anymore,” she said. “The jobs aren’t promoted, and nobody wants to be part of agriculture anymore. It’s the dying career. So we want to make sure that the kids have that interest and they really understand what ag is about. That’s why we’re here.”
After returning from the teachers’ convention, Peraza reached out to Imperial County Farm Bureau and was invited to make a presentation on the importance of bringing CMW back to the Valley.
“And they were like, ‘We’ll support you. We need this happening right now — Brea (Mohamed) is interested as well,’” Peraza recalled.
Mohamed, who is ICFB’s executive director, and Peraza led Wednesday’s meeting.
Although CMW-IV is an independent group, Mohamed said Farm Bureau will fully support the group in any way it can.
Farm Bureau President Tom Brundy and Past President Jimmy Abatti also attended and made brief speeches on the importance of promoting agriculture locally.
Abatti said an information gap exists between the ag industry and “the urban people.”
“Food automatically doesn’t appear on the shelf,” Abatti said. “A lot of people don’t know, and we kind of joke about it, but actually a lot of people do not know. And I think this group here, an organization like this, will help us get the word out and educate people.”
CMW’s State Southern District Director Kathy Stroschein also attended the meeting. She explained how CMW had about 40 chapters in its first year of existence, and now is down to about 20.
“I am so glad to see so many women at this meeting tonight,” Stroschein said. “We’ve been trying to get a chapter started back up for several years down here, and when we got the emails from Natalie it was like, ‘Oh great, this is super.’”
Annual dues of $40 per member was established. An interim president, secretary and treasurer were also selected, but official elections will take place at a later time.
Those interested in joining may attend CMW-IV’s next meeting at 5 p.m. on Oct. 2 at Imperial County Farm Bureau.