Agricultural Association Riverside Near Me

4worldlovers:
One hundred years ago, local farm leaders were sheepherding a mass movement in Riverside County to form a Farm Bureau and obtain services of a farm advisor from the University of California. Their efforts culminated in the formation of Riverside County Farm Bureau and a commitment from the Board of Supervisors to fund an office that would become Riverside County Cooperative Extension.

The two organizations were created together because law provided for assignment of a farm advisor to a county only after one-fifth of the county farmers formed an organization - a Farm Bureau - that would make it possible for the farm advisor to meet with the farmers and provide them with information and training that he or she had to offer.

Frequent articles in local newspapers conveyed the excitement in the local farm communities as farmers formally formed 23 Farm Bureau centers, signed petitions requesting formation of the county organization and elected center directors to serve on a county board.

Prominent Highgrove citrus grower John L. Bishop accompanied University of California’s assistant state leader of farm advisors, Professor William B. Parker, on a tour of agricultural communities to speak to growers, to organize them into centers and then to organize the countywide Farm Bureau.

Center directors met on the morning of April 18, 1917, to present the petitions bearing more than 800 farmers’ names and to start the Riverside County Farm Bureau. That afternoon, they kept an appointment with the Board of Supervisors to obtain county funding for a farm advisor.

In those early days Riverside County Cooperative Extension and Riverside County Farm Bureau were a combined organization; today they are entirely separate entities but continue a close working relationship. ~ Written by Robert Eli Perkins.

The Riverside County Farm Bureau is a vital part of our community, providing an important voice for Riverside County agriculture as well as to the protection of our industry by continually being involved in legislative matters that affect our industry and the interest of property owners at the local, state and federal levels. Actively working on issues that affect everyone in Riverside County, such as Air Quality, Water Quality, TMDL, and Watershed planning, along with invasive species concerns and rural crime.

We often sponsor local teachers to attend the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom events, as well as participating in the bidding process and purchasing of animals at Jr. Livestock Auctions during the Southern California Fair, Perris and Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival, Indio each year.

The Riverside County Farm Bureau helps ensure that the agriculture industry here remains viable, and continues to generate financial security for the entire community.