MCFB February 2024 President’s Message
Well, here we are. It’s February already! How are all of your resolutions going? I resolved to not resolve. It’s too much pressure and when life throws curveballs, sometimes you have to accept the fact that something didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to no matter how hard you tried. I guess that’s my farmer roots showing!
My toxic traits are that I worry and I care too much about what people think. This leads to me second guessing myself and asking lots of questions. The asking questions is a good thing. When I was first elected to the MCFB Board, I replaced my brother Matt. I told him that I was a mom, a bookkeeper, Human Resources manager… everything but a leader. I’m a background worker and never saw myself as being up front. His view was that we, as a generational family farming operation, were selling everything and the rest of my family was moving out of the state and I needed to use my voice if I was going to stay. I kept my little 18 acre pistachio orchard because I’m right on the outskirts of Madera, in the sphere of influence. My in-laws that I dearly love are here and I wasn’t about to fight with a 15 year old daughter about where we should move to. My brother told me that it didn’t matter how much acreage I had. I just had to be involved. It was my turn to stand up for agriculture.
Fast forward a few years and, poof, 2022-2023 was my first year as MCFB president. Anyone that was at our 2022 Ag United event heard my father, Chester Andrew (who also served as an MCFB president), introduce me as a fighter. Shortly before that event I sat with our Executive Director, Christina Beckstead, and asked her what she needed from me as a president. She asked if I was ready to fight for water, the right to farm, to stand up and demand that we be heard. I truthfully told her no, I wasn’t ready, but I will be. The year had me scrambling to catch up on everything happening in other parts of the state as well as our county. I had to come out of my comfortable bubble, embrace adversity and expect the unexpected. I’m very fortunate to have a board with a variety of expertise that I can rely on to help make me a better spokesperson for everything Madera farmers and ranchers have to offer and all the adversity they have to endure.
For the past couple of years Madera County along with a few others have been at odds with our state entity CAFB. Every county had similar reasons for the disconnect. Being a “grass roots” organization we wanted to be heard and more engagement to happen. So we fought. As you may already know, CAFB has it’s first woman president, Shannon Douglass, Shawn Crook, whom many of us know because he comes to as many functions as possible, is 1st VP and Ron Peterson is 2nd VP. Change is happening at the state level and it’s too early to tell if we made the right choice. Suffice to say, all of these individuals are capable, level headed and strong leaders. I expect more engagement with the counties. More asking instead of telling.
More listening and more open minds.
Madera County Farm Bureau is a thorn in many organizations side because we ask the hard questions. We want to collaborate and be part of the solutions but, we also walk a fine line because we represent all farmers and ranchers in the county. Even in the board room, because our board is so diverse, the conversations can get spirited. At the end of the day we always ask ourselves, “Who do we represent? What do we stand for? How can we help?” Oftentimes, we agree to remain neutral and just be a clearing house of information because the worst thing we can do is take sides and put farmers and ranchers against each other. Any Agricultural Member is welcome to attend our board meetings to listen in, provide input and ask questions. We volunteer our time to help shape our ever-changing landscape but, we can’t do it without all of our members.
So, as I start my second year as president, I promise to listen more than I speak, ask the difficult questions, have an open mind and try to understand where the fight needs to be. I don’t think I will ever be the smartest person in the room, but I continue to be grateful for the men and women on the MCFB board as well as all the members that I can call on for crash courses on whatever the next big topic is. It’s because of all of you that I have the confidence to be a leader.
