Farm Fatales : Women’s Group Is Proud of Its Roots in Agriculture

Sipping margaritas and nibbling enchiladas, the women talked of pigs. Sick pigs, slaughtered pigs, smelly pigs, fat pigs.

And that was perfectly acceptable dinner-table conversation for members of Ventura County’s chapter of California Women for Agriculture.

Gathering in Santa Paula’s Familia Diaz restaurant each month, a dozen of CWA’s most active members swap anecdotes and advice in fast-paced, unstructured discussions.

They can talk about virus-stricken pigs and know that they’ll get sympathy. Or they can chat about carrots, whine about weeds, gab about grapefruit. Whatever. They know that their fellow diners will understand.

That’s what CWA is all about.

This may be the only women’s club where the president can announce a “citrus cover crop field trip”--an excursion to check out the greens growing between lemon trees--and elicit a round of genuinely excited “ooohs.”

It’s certainly the only forum where an elegantly dressed woman can gush about her upcoming wedding--and, in the same breath, lament that she doesn’t have enough freezer space to store big hunks of freshly slaughtered pork.

“We’re all coming from the same perspective,” said Arlene Pinkerton, a longtime CWA member whose family has farmed in Ventura County for decades. “It’s a very good support group.”

And support can be vital for farming women, as Shelley Johnson found out years ago when she started telling friends about her family’s 100-acre citrus ranch along the Sespe River.

“I was really proud to grow things to feed people,” Johnson recalled. “But even my sister put plastic covers on the furniture when I came to visit. You know, people thought of me as a dirt farmer.”

To change that hayseed, country bumpkin image, the 45 local members of California Women for Agriculture have pressed a low-key public relations campaign designed to teach residents about the farming community.

Under chapter President Donna Hale Pinkerton, the group will also strive to attract at least 100 new members this year, targeting anyone with any links to the agricultural industry. Even consumers are welcome--anyone who has ever mashed an avocado into guacamole or shredded lettuce for a salad can join. So can men, despite the CWA’s outdated name.

The Ventura County chapter of CWA has already attracted women from a variety of fields.

There are farmers, who work the land themselves, and consultants, who help exporters market produce. There are home gardeners who potter around in back-yard plots and pest experts who produce scientific videos on fruit flies. And there are unabashed pig fans, such as Robin Dick, whose license plate declares HUG HOG.

They all share a common goal: to learn more about farming and share their information with Ventura County residents, especially children. “We want kids to know that it’s not as simple as ‘Mama, I want some milk, so let’s go to the grocery store,’ ” said Donna Hale Pinkerton, who took over the CWA’s presidency in the fall after sharing the job for a year with her cousin Arlene.

By teaching children how their food gets to supermarket shelves, she said, “we want to show them the grocery store’s not the be-all and end-all.”

“It’s an exciting time for agriculture here--there’s a great deal going on,” she added. “It’s a time to be proud of agriculture in Ventura County.” The CWA members do their best to get that message across.

They hold yearly Salute to Agriculture dinners to recognize pioneer farm families, and they hold a Supervisors’ Luncheon each spring to explain their views to local politicians. They also work on Ag in the Classroom programs, which bring farmers to elementary schools around the county.

“We have such a high concentration of city people here, people who don’t have any connection with agriculture,” said Karen Wetzel, a CWA member who helps organize Ventura County’s farmers’ markets. “People need to know how important agriculture is to our county, our state and our country, period.”

At a recent vocational fair, the CWA booth displayed charts showing all the jobs associated with agriculture, from the obvious (fruit picker, tractor mechanic, lemon sorter) to the more subtle (water engineer, soil scientist, chemist).

Johnson also presided over a table laden with goods made from agricultural byproducts. Teen-agers wandering past her exhibit learned that items they may use every day--shampoo, glue, bubble gum--contain animal parts, such as hides, bones or horns.

“I want the kids to know that animals are not just good for food,” she said.

Although the county’s agriculture industry remains vibrant--crop sales topped $848 million last year--many farm-lovers fear that runaway development will soon encase fertile fields in concrete.

To encourage the younger generations to preserve Ventura County’s agrarian heritage, CWA offers $2,500 worth of scholarships each year for students pursuing agricultural careers. The money can be applied to college courses in any related field, from home economics to landscaping to veterinary medicine.

And while they’re helping students pursue degrees, CWA members do a fair amount of learning themselves.

Lupe Ortiz, for example, realized a few years ago that she didn’t have a clue what her husband and brothers-in-law did on their huge citrus and avocado ranches outside Santa Paula. “They kind of kept me in the dark,” she said.

While she was raising four children, she was too busy to care about being left out. But when her kids left home, Ortiz began to think more about her husband’s life work.

She sought answers at CWA.

Since she started attending the monthly meetings, which usually feature a guest lecturer, Ortiz said she’s gained “a lot of knowledge about the way things work.” The group, she added, “seems like a good way to get involved.”