
By Jenny Holtermann, President, Kern County Farm Bureau
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope you all had a blessed holiday season with your friends and family. It is truly a joyous time of year, and as I reflect on 2024, I see progress, commitment, and advancement in our Farm Bureau.
Your Kern County Farm Bureau leadership attended the California Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in Monterey on December 8-10. I am honored to work with such a remarkable team and for the opportunity to showcase the amazing strength of advocacy we have in Kern County.
We were proud to be a finalist for the Innovator Award for our Tailgate Talk program. The Innovator Award brought forward three county farm bureaus who introduced a new program this year that took a visionary approach to advocacy. We were proud to showcase the Tailgate Talk program in which we brought forward real issues and heard from the professionals tackling these tough topics. We brought them to you in the fields and rural areas of Kern County. We plan to extend this program next year and continue to bring more issue-based topics to our grassroots members.
We were excited to have our Executive Director, Rachel Nettleton, join us in Monterey as she graduated from the Leadership Farm Bureau program. Rachel has participated in the LFB program all year, strengthening her leadership skills, agriculture knowledge, and advocacy efforts. We eagerly await Rachel joining us in the office in January again, after the completion of her maternity leave.
Our 1st Vice President, Alex Dominguez and Treasurer, Lucas Espericueta, were our delegates for the conference in which they voted on policy changes and represented Kern County through workshops and breakouts.
I continue to serve on the California Farm Bureau Board as the State Rural Health and Safety Chair. We hosted a meeting in which we brainstormed ideas for outreach on rural hospital programs, crime prevention, workforce safety programs and more. I was excited to bring to life the first ever Conference Fun Run, in which 50 conference participants ran or walked the Monterey Wharf early Monday morning to better spread healthy habits to our members.
Before the Farm Bureau conference, the Young Farmers and Ranchers convened for their annual conference as well. We are proud to have two representatives from Kern County, Katie Verhoef and Tim Collins, serve on the state YF&R Committee. Katie was recently elected Secretary of California YF&R and Tim served as moderator for the Discussion Meet as the 2023 State Winner. Our YF&R represent Kern’s future in agriculture leadership and the passion for the next generation. Kern YF&R also won the Harvest for All award for their assistance in food donations, volunteer hours, and giving back to the community. Great way to lead, Kern YF&R!
As a past YF&R state chair myself, it is so inspiring to see our young leaders step up and take on more opportunities. We have a great future in agriculture, and it starts here.
While many people set New Year’s resolutions or goals for the coming year, I like to pick a word to focus on. This year, my word is momentum. We have made a transition from the years past, and we must not stop. I would like to challenge our agriculture community to keep up the momentum and aim for more. We have a solid foundation built, and with more force, energy, and passion, we can move forward. I know we have a tough road ahead, but by keeping momentum and not giving up, we can further strengthen our agriculture industry.