Fair to the Fair?

Thank you very much for your coverage of the 1989 San Fernando Valley Fair!

On behalf of my Future Farmers of America students, I also wish to express our deepest thanks to the members of the 51st Fair District.

The directors made a commitment and a promise to the students that a fair would be held in 1989. How easy it would have been to let this year go without a fair with all the uncertainties and obstacles that had to be overcome. Yet, to my students, not having a fair would have been a financial disaster. Many of their large livestock bank loans would have defaulted, and the students would have literally “eaten” their project loans.

To the critics of the fair, I ask how nearsighted can one be! Although agriculture production is rapidly disappearing from the Valley, agricultural sales and services, veterinary services and the nursery industry are alive and well in the Valley and Los Angeles. Los Angeles County is still among the top 20 counties in the state in agricultural receipts and growing stronger due to the boom in the nursery and landscape industries.

One of the biggest attractions at the fair was the Horticulture Exhibit, where not only veterans were able to display their produce, but budding horticulturists displayed their talents by designing and constructing landscape exhibits.

The fair was an educational bonanza to each and every visitor. It still amazes me the number of high school students who firmly believe that eggs, milk and produce come from the local supermarket, prepackaged and ready to eat. The bottom line is that the fair allows the opportunity to educate our youth in the realities of the real world.

STEVE PIETROLUNGO

Canoga Park