Farmers to Canvass Against 2 Measures

Dozens of farmers plan to walk precincts across Ventura on Saturday, passing out lemons and literature to show why they are sour on two ballot measures on the Nov. 7 ballot that would block farmland in and around the city from development.

About 80 farmers have signed up with the Ventura County Farm Bureau to help spread their message during Saturday morning’s canvass of Ventura neighborhoods with frequent voters.

“The theme is, ‘Take our lemon, don’t vote for theirs,’ ” said Bob Pinkerton, a Santa Paula grower and a farm bureau director. The group is developing a political flyer with the lemon theme.

“Our major concern is property rights,” Pinkerton said.

Measures I and J on the Ventura ballot do not protect farmers from threats to their livelihood, he said, such as pressure from encroaching neighborhoods against spraying chemicals or noise.

But the two measures would lock up their property as agricultural land for 35 years, he said.

“As landowners, we do plan to defend our rights to private property ownership and there is going to be litigation,” Pinkerton said. “It’s too bad that the city will have to come up with the bucks to pay for more lawyers.”

Slow-growth activists said they placed the two “Save our Agricultural Resources” measures on the ballot to halt the urban expansion into Ventura’s remaining farmland.

Former Ventura Mayor Richard Francis, who wrote the two measures, said the proponents are also walking precincts to bring their case to the voters.

But he acknowledged that the farmers’ bit of political theater is a clever tactic.