TBP Agriculture

California Women for Agriculture
State CWA President in the news.

Diana Westmoreland Pedrozo isn't a farmer. So why has she positioned herself as one of Merced County's most fervent agriculture supporters? Her answer is simple: "I like to eat."

A longtime Merced resident, Westmoreland Pedrozo has spent much of her working life at a family-owned cabinet and door shop.

Though her only hands-on experience in farming was spent on her grandparents' almond farm as a teenager -- Gracey Elementary School stands there now -- the 51-year-old has dedicated her life to agriculture, the county's largest industry.

She has served as executive director of the Merced County Farm Bureau for four years and has no plans to leave. She's one of the county's most vocal, impassioned advocates for farmland preservation, and for a quarter-century she's been a member of California Women for Agriculture, a statewide, nonpartisan group dedicated to the survival of agriculture.

In January, she'll begin a two-year term as CWA's state president.

Westmoreland Pedrozo spoke Friday about her efforts to support agriculture, about the current state of the county's largest industry and about its future.

Q: What's the biggest challenge facing agriculture today, both in Merced and across California?

A: No. 1 is water, and you can't talk about water without talking about land use. They're intricately connected. But even if you have all the water and land you can farm, if you don't have people to farm it you're in trouble. So I'd say water, land use, the work force and the regulatory environment are the biggest things.

Q: What can state leaders do to better protect agriculture and our domestic food supply?

A: I think that every decision they make, they should first ask themselves, 'How will this affect agriculture?' Honestly, they need to ask that question because it all comes back to our basic necessity for food. No matter what issue we're talking about -- crime, quality of life, the underserved, health care -- it all comes back to the ability to provide nutritious, safe food.

It's critical, especially here. No place else on Earth produces what the Central Valley does. And we're casually paving it over. We're casually paving it over, and we need to be a lot more thoughtful in our decision making.

Q: How would you address the water shortage?

A: Water efficiency is critical. And we need more storage. We need the ability to store more water as our climate changes and we're faced with more water versus snow as our water source.

We also have to be careful of the divisiveness of the north-versus-south mentality. We need to be more efficient in the delivery and use of water.

Q: What can the average consumer do to protect agriculture and the domestic food supply?

A: We have to support local growers and we have to look at labels before we buy and ask our grocers where the food comes from. ... Less than 1% of the food that's imported into our country is inspected, so buying from local farmers markets and asking grocers to buy local should be the first priority for consumers.

Source: www.cawomen4ag.com/id56.html