…We have to tell our story better.” Snider emphasized the Farm Bureau’s expanding educational programs that introduce local schoolchildren to farming through Farm Days and FFA partnerships. “Kids think food…
Pumpkin Power and Precision Tech: California Agriculture Shines on AgNet News Hour
…the heart of American farming. Van Groningen, dubbed the “Pumpkin King of California,” joined the show from Manteca, where his family farm grows over 60 varieties of pumpkins ranging from…
Bill Jones: Fixing California’s Water and Future
…politics, determine the state’s success. Encouraging the Next Generation of Leaders Jones, who still farms on the West Side near Firebaugh, urged young people in agriculture to consider public service….
Nat DiBuduo: Politics, Water & California Farming
…Memorial. Everything was surrounded by tree fruit and grapes back then.” From Family Farms to City Limits Today, much of the farmland that shaped DiBuduo’s youth has been replaced by…
Nat DiBuduo, the “Godfather of Grapes,” on the Future of California Wine and Farming
…change he sees as both inevitable and troubling. “Farmers can’t compete with developers when it’s this hard to farm in California,” he said. “Regulations, labor, and water costs keep rising…
Ethnic Roots of American Agriculture: How Immigrants Shaped U.S. Farming
…and livestock management techniques distinct from English, Scottish, or Irish farmers. Each group contributed to the evolving farming culture that defined rural America. Immigrants Start as Wage Laborers Many immigrants…
The Roots of 4-H: Jessie Shambaugh and the Birth of American Agricultural Youth
…Cooperative Extension Service. This initiative connected land-grant universities with local communities, enabling farmers and youth to receive research-based agricultural education. With this legislation, 4-H gained national recognition as part of…
Karen Ross on Water, Workforce, and the Future of California Agriculture
…the sameness in farming, if you’ve seen one farm, you’ve seen one farm,” Ross noted. “Understanding regional specifics helps us see where people are working together to really lean into…
Karen Ross Talks Water, Regulation, and Prop 50 Silence on AgNet News Hour
…mix of climate uncertainty and government regulation has made farming even more difficult. Still, she emphasized that the future can be bright if farmers and policymakers work together on education,…
How Railroads Transformed American Agriculture
…Ohio Railroad (B&O) became the first railway to carry both freight and passengers. This groundbreaking achievement marked the beginning of large-scale rail service in America. The B&O Railroad would later…
Elaine Culotti: Fighting for California’s Farmers and Future
…to many as the “Fresno Undercover Billionaire” and “The Lipstick Farmer.” From her Fallbrook farm to national television, Culotti has emerged as a bold voice for California agriculture and a…
How the Smith-Lever Act Created 4-H and Transformed Rural America
A Turning Point in Agricultural Education In 1914, the United States Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act, establishing the Cooperative Extension Service—a transformative program that reshaped how Americans learned about farming,…
David Tangipa: Fighting for California Farmers and Rejecting Proposition 50
…the fourth-generation farmer who didn’t do what our great-grandparents did,” he said. “We got a little lazy, and now we’re losing the farm.” California’s prosperity, he argued, was built by…
Why Prop 50 Threatens Rural Representation: California Farm Bureau President Shannon Douglass
…those products and everybody up the chain involved in the marketing and sales of those.” Yet farms are disappearing at an alarming rate. “We lost 20% of the farms in…