LAKE COUNTY — The Lake County Farm Bureau was judged County of the Year among farm bureaus with 650 or fewer members, by the California Farm Bureau Federation (CFBF) during a ceremony at the 95th CFBF annual meeting in Monterey on Dec. 9.
The county farm bureau led response to the proposed protection of a local fish, which could affect farmers” ability to draw water from Clear Lake and its tributaries, according to Dave Kranz of the CFBF. The Lake County Farm Bureau organized meetings and outreach to affected people, and emphasized the potential impact to the wider community. The county farm bureau also created a new membership brochure, formed a Rural Crime Prevention Committee and held a number of safety workshops for farmers.
The CFBF works to protect family farms and ranches on behalf of nearly 78,000 members statewide and as part of a nationwide network of more than 6.2 million farm bureau members.
The San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation earned top honors as winner of the Golden State Award, given to the county Farm Bureau that accomplishes the most outstanding body of work during the year; the Modoc County Farm Bureau received the Innovator Award for sponsoring a distinctive activity, in this case a survey of the wild horse population in the Modoc National Forest; for farm bureaus with 651 to 1,000 members, the Tehama County Farm Bureau earned County of the Year honors, and the County of the Year award for farm bureaus with 1,001 to 1,999 members was presented to the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau..
Eight other county farm Bureaus earned President”s Awards for outstanding programs within their membership categories: Kern, Kings, Modoc, Monterey, Napa, Sacramento, Tulare and Yuba-Sutter.
In addition to those county farm bureaus, 14 others earned County Activities of Excellence Awards: Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Imperial, Mendocino, Riverside, San Diego, Shasta, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Ventura and Yolo.
