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Central Coast Farm & Ranch, 5156 McGrath Street, Ventura, CA (2025)

06/17/2025

Publisher’s note

This is your magazine
by Maureen McGuire

In my role at Farm Bureau, the concept of ownership comes up a lot. Not just in the legal sense– though for many readers owning a ranch or a farm is something you’ve built over generations–but in a broader sense.
What does it mean to own your story? Your challenges? Your triumphs? What does it mean to have a voice in an industry where decisions are often made far away from the dirt under your boots?
CCF&R seeks to answer those questions. This publication is owned by the people it serves. That is not a metaphor. We are growers and ranchers and PCAs and educators and irrigators and policy people and old-timers and newcomers who all contribute to making this magazine a reality. We live in this place and work in this place. We plant seeds, repair pumps, analyze data, pick fruit, fight fires and battle for a future that is not guaranteed.
We don’t all agree. Thank God for that. Agriculture is too complex, too critical, too steeped in politics and economics to flatten into a single point of view. That is exactly why this publication matters. It exists so we can explore the full terrain of the issues that shape us. We shine a light on the hard stuff. We get curious. We ask tough questions. We ask better questions.
And we listen.
Production of CCF&R–involving professional writers, editors and photographers–is not about public relations, though that inevitably is part of what we do. We are a place where this industry talks to itself honestly. Where we allow complexity and tension to live side by side with pride and passion. Where people who may never agree still show up on the same page for civil and thoughtful debate.
In this issue, and all issues, you’ll see all of that. You’ll see the heartbreak of dreams dying and the stubborn endurance of small victories. You’ll meet people who are walking away from lifelong work, and others who are just planting their flag. You’ll see the intersection of regulation and tradition, and what it means to work the land while the rules shift beneath your feet.
None of it is simple. But all of it is real. That’s the promise.
When you read CCF&R, I want you to feel a little less alone in the complexity of what you’re doing. I want you to feel proud, not because we’re sugarcoating the truth–but because we’re telling it. I want you to feel represented, even if the story doesn’t go the way you hoped. And above all, I want you to remember that this is your publication. You don’t just subscribe to it. You own it.
Thanks for being here.

06/17/2025

Gilded Age’s dance with tariffs
Short-lived but necessary

By Colleen Cason

Tariffs are not new to California’s citrus industry—the import tax briefly was imposed 135 years ago with mixed results.
Ultimately growers found a better way to sell their oranges: They united to form one of the most successful marketing cooperatives in the nation.
In the 1890s the Golden State’s citrus industry was barely out of its infancy and seemed ripe for tariff protection.
The arrival of railroads around 1880 opened East Coast markets to California orange growers who happily reported yields as high as $3,000 an acre—equivalent to $105,000 in today’s money. California citrus acreage exploded from 3,000 acres to more than 40,000 acres by 1893.
This created a glut as Eastern ports continued receiving boatloads of Sicilian fruit, some of it safeguarded and brokered by the Mafia, an emerging crime syndicate, according research reported in The Journal of Economic History.
Middlemen take control
Growers found themselves at the mercy of one-sided economics. Early on, buyers walked the orchard, made an educated guess on the crop’s value, paid the farmer and took the fruit to market. But with a surfeit available, middlemen held sway.
T.H.B. Chamblin, a founder of the Southern California Fruit Exchange, observed: “The old-line packers and shippers…deliberately, and for personal gain, had almost wholly abandoned the buying system and had substituted therefore commission methods.”
Wrote Valencia orange grower Charles Chapman in his “Value of the Tariff to Citrus,” “It was scratch and scratch hard to make a bare living.”
Rescue—albeit temporary—arrived via the U.S. Congress. The Tariff Act of 1890, commonly called the McKinley tariff, levied sometimes in excess of 50% taxes on some imported goods.
These were a boon for domestic citrus producers, more than quadrupling the tax on foreign fruit. But tariffs also spiked prices just as the Gilded Age was about to careen over the cliff into the Panic of 1893, a full-fledged depression with unemployment approaching 20%.
Even before the downturn, tariffs were broadly unpopular due to price hikes on protected products. So much so that in September 1892, the Ventura Weekly Post and Democrat published the lyrics of an anti-tariff song, to be sung to the Gilbert and Sullivan tune “Tit Willow.”
In Santa Paula, grower Nathan Blanchard fashioned a strategy to compete against Sicilian citrus by working toward a higher quality product consumers would pay more for and to control the means of production. The Ventura Free Press reported in March 1893 that Blanchard was enlarging his packinghouse and noted: “When prepared for the market his lemons…command higher prices than the renowned Sicily brand.” That same year he and oilman Wallace Hardison began raising $1 million to create Limoneira.
Marketing alternative emerges
In 1892, two Southern California associations formed by and for growers provided a workable cooperative blueprint. They became the foundation of the Southern California Fruit Exchange, chartered in 1893. It created a pool to process and market members’ product. SCFE’s packinghouses graded, packed and shipped the fruit, which the exchange marketed. Individual growers received a share of the proceeds based on quality and quantity of their fruit. The new exchange also introduced quality-control standards.
“Through branding and advertising, the orange would be transformed from a luxury household item to a necessity,” wrote Rahno Mabel MacCurdy, in “The History of the California Fruit Exchange.”
In its first season of operation, it represented 80% of orange growers in Southern California. Today, that exchange is known as Sunkist Inc. with 1,000 members. Similar organizations quickly formed in Fillmore and Santa Barbara.
Those tariffs? Although Chapman and others who lived through what they labeled the “red ink years” believed they were necessary for the industry’s survival, they were repealed in 1894.

Colleen Cason is editor emeritus of Central Coast Farm & Ranch and a Conejo Valley-based freelance writer.

06/17/2025

“Ag on the Edge” podcast offers farmers’ point of view

By Kim Lamb Gregory

During the six years Louise Lampara has served as Executive Director of Ventura County Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business (CoLAB), she kept hearing a common frustration in the agricultural community.
“When ag makes news, it’s usually not a favorable thing,” said Greg Lewis, vice president of Duda Farms Fresh Foods. “You watch a video of a tractor spraying through the strawberry fields. It could be spraying an organically approved material, but the appearance of it looks bad…There’s a story behind all of these things and we’re not telling ours well enough.”
Farmers and ranchers wanted to tell their own story, but how? Maybe videos for social media? A podcast?
“Everybody kept saying ‘That’s a great idea. Somebody needs to do that.’” Lampara said. “And after about a year I thought, well, I guess I’m the someone.”
With a grant from the Wood-Claeyssens Foundation and plenty of determination—but no podcast experience—Lampara and another staff member put their heads together, did research and launched a podcast called “Ag on the Edge: Conversations About Ventura County Agriculture.”
The show debuted in July 2024 with Lewis as the first guest. Every month, the hour-long podcast features a farmer or expert to discuss issues that affect the agricultural community such as water, regulation and pest control. Another guest, sixth-generation citrus, avocado and coffee farmer Lisa Tate, expressed her thanks to Lampara for giving farmers and ranchers their own voice.
“Farmers seem to be romanticized or villainized,” she said “The Hallmark movie about the little farm that needs to be saved, or you see a documentary—and I use the term loosely—of a commercial or large farm polluting the environment. I think people actually want to support farmers but they don’t know how because they’re getting the wrong information.”
Having grown up near Boston, Lampara never imagined she would wind up deeply connected to agriculture in Southern California. Lampara, who will be 55 in July, relocated to California in the late 1980s because “I’m of the generation that, when you graduate high school, you get as far away from home as possible.”
She settled in the Sacramento area, attended U.C. Davis and graduated in 1993 with a degree in Zoology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. In 1995, she joined the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife to work on endangered species issues. During a bout of regulatory head-butting over endangered fairy shrimp on farmland “I ended up getting a bad performance review saying I was ‘much too eager to work with landowners.’”
Lampara then decided to work as a paramedic for more than 10 years before joining a Ventura County oil company as an environmental advisor. After working on issues with CoLAB, she got to know the retiring executive director and in 2019, took over the helm at CoLAB—just as the pandemic hit. As difficult as it was, Lampara credits the experience with the pandemic with helping her develop the idea of “Ag on the Edge.”
“Nothing was normal,” she said. “We really had to find other ways to engage our membership and the whole world went online with Zoom, podcasts and social media. And when the world opened up again, it seems like we opened up a different way. And a podcast made so much sense.”
“Ag On the Edge” episodes are available on Spotify, iHeart, YouTube and Apple podcasts. You can also follow on social media.

Kim Lamb Gregory, a communications specialist at Cal State Channel Islands,is a veteran print and broadcast journalist.

03/14/2025

Greg Murphy turns to Santa Paula
Heritage Valley ingredients make the menu

By Lisa McKinnon

As a culinary student Greg Murphy wasn’t as excited about class field trips to the farmers market as he should have been.
“I was like, ‘All I want are the honey sticks because I can eat those instantly,’ ” he said with a laugh.
How times and shopping lists have changed. Now the executive chef at Parque 1055–a new restaurant, bar and special-events space in a renovated, 1920s-era building in downtown Santa Paula–Murphy is looking for ways to showcase the region’s produce as he refreshes the venue’s menus for spring.
He’s thinking carrots. Asparagus. Maybe even some heritage avocados and subtropical fruits grown in Santa Paula at Brokaw Ranch Co. Brokaw farmers dropped off a generous box of samples during the build-up to the restaurant’s December debut.
“We want to celebrate the way we eat in California and in this area, which has such a concentration of fresh, local produce,” Murphy said.
His appreciation for the agricultural bounty of the Central Coast was honed during previous stints at two well-known Santa Barbara restaurants, the Wine Cask and bouchon.
Murphy’s rise from line cook to executive chef included helping launch the “foodie strolls” that bouchon still offers today. The events saw him lead diners on guided tours of the Santa Barbara farmers market, then meet them back at the restaurant for three-course meals made with the day’s purchases.
“It started informally, with people noticing us wheeling our wagons through the markets and asking who we were shopping for,” he said. “By the time I left, talking to all these different people about their thoughts on food and cooking had become one of the highlights of my week.”
A change in direction
Born and raised in Orange County, Murphy moved to Santa Barbara to major in environmental studies at UCSB. After graduation, he was figuring out what to do next when a friend suggested he enroll in the School of Culinary Arts and Hotel Management at Santa Barbara City College. It wasn’t such a far-fetched idea: Murphy, 45, grew up in a family of avid home cooks and had worked at fast-casual restaurants through high school and college.
“At 24, 25, I was one of the older students and felt like I was at a disadvantage. But I was the guy asking questions and wanting to be hands on with everything. When it was over, I thought, ‘OK, I want to take this seriously.’” That vow started a path that in Santa Barbara culminated with 13 years at bouchon, most of them as executive chef.
Go-to purveyors at the time included Tutti Frutti Farms of Lompoc, Chuy Berry Farms of Arroyo Grande, Tamai Family Farms of Oxnard and Earthtrine Farm of Ojai. Murphy credits grower Robert “BD” Dautch of Earthtrine for introducing him to “really interesting fresh culinary herbs you can’t find anywhere else.”
Now living in Ventura with wife Shannon and their three pugs, Murphy does some personal shopping at the Saturday farmers market in Ventura and the Sunday market in Oxnard’s Channel Islands Harbor. He’s also a gardener, an occasional fisherman and a keen forager during chanterelle season.
Leading market tours for Parque 1055 diners isn’t on the horizon but collaborative events with growers, winemakers and others are in the planning stages.
In the meantime, Murphy will be a regular presence at area farmers markets, shopping for the restaurant and helping “get the word out that we’re here,” he said. “I want to use ingredients to share the story of the Central Coast–and of the Heritage Valley–in ways that makes us a destination for locals and visitors alike.”
Parque 1055 is open daily at 1055 E. Main St., Santa Paula. Call 805-619-1055 or click on parque1055.com.
Lisa McKinnon is a Ventura-based journalist who has long covered farm-to-table cuisine on the Central Coast.

CARROT SALAD with
CARROT VINAIGRETTE

Available year round but especially tasty in the spring, carrots are the star of a vinaigrette that Greg Murphy, executive chef at Parque 1055 in Santa Paula, likes to use on salads made with–you guessed it–more carrots.
Options abound, but Murphy is a fan of the vibrant winter-meets-spring combo shown here. It starts with cooked, chilled baby carrots in colors ranging from pale yellow to dark purple. Tossed in olive oil, lemon juice, salt, minced onion and fresh herbs (parsley and thyme are favorites for this purpose), the carrots are placed atop a mound of similarly dressed arugula or the mustard green/leafy brassica of your choice. Garnishes include raw, shaved carrots and radishes, additional fresh herbs and a few well-placed edible flowers from the garden. Supporting it all from below is the carrot vinaigrette, which, if you’re not into salads, can also be used as a marinade, a sauce for sandwiches or anything else in need of a pop of flavor.
“Any (dried) aromatic, such as cumin or coriander, can be added” to the vinaigrette, Murphy said. Just stick with warm tones (think red, orange, yellow), since anything with a green hue will muddy the vibrant color.

INGREDIENTS for VINAIGRETTE
1 quart carrot juice
1 cup light colored vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon style mustard (smooth)
1 cup olive oil

DIRECTIONS
Add carrot juice and vinegar to a small pot and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. As the liquid simmers, skim any solids that form on the surface and reserve the solids.
Reduce mixture to 1 cup or less. Transfer reduction to a blender and blend on medium/high. Add the accumulated solids back to the juice mix. Add Dijon and continue blending.
Slowly stream in olive oil to create an emulsion.
Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

03/14/2025

Tax relief expands

Ventura County offering incentive
for ag land zoned open space

By Wendy Woods

Ventura County has expanded its tax break program for agricultural landowners to properties zoned open space. Previously, only agricultural-zoned land could qualify for the reductions.
The decision by the Board of Supervisors to lower property taxes for more landowners is intended to preserve lands used for farming and grazing. Supervisor Kelly Long said the action demonstrated Ventura County’s commitment to ag.
“There’s always pros and cons,” Long said. “You have to think things fiscally but you also have to think about the future. This is our decision for the future.”
The Land Conservation Act, also known as the Williamson Act, was adopted by the state in 1965 and implemented in Ventura County four years later. It allows local governments to offer tax incentives by entering into 10- or 20-year contracts with qualifying landowners to discourage the conversion of agricultural land to urban use.
According to the state Department of Conservation, nearly 16 million of 30 million acres of farm and ranch land in California are part of the LCA program.
Ventura County currently has more than 1,100 contracts with owners of land zoned agricultural. The impetus for expanding the program to include open space came out of a severe dry spell.
“We were in the middle of an historic drought and we had cattle operators liquidating herds and really wanting to be able to participate in the program,” said Korinne Bell, agricultural commissioner for the county. “A lot of leased land for cattle happens to be open space and they weren’t able to get the tax benefit.”
To qualify, landowners with 20-plus acres of property zoned open space must use at least half of the land for crop production. Owners of property used for animal husbandry and grazing must have at least 160 acres of property to qualify.
Landowners could see a reduction in their property taxes of up to 35% depending on length of contract and other factors determined by the county assessor.
“Not every county participates in LCA,” Bell said. “We consider ourselves very lucky that Ventura County participates in this program.”
More than 214,000 acres in the county fall in the category of open space that meets the requirements of the expanded program. This is worth $1.4 million in tax relief, to be absorbed by the county’s general fund, if all landowners participate.
Most of these properties are used for animal grazing and orchards with open space on the fringes.
Long said there’s an added benefit of brush clearance and wildfire risk reduction when supporting grazing in the county. “It’s really important to utilize animals to help us,” she said.
Wendy Woods is a veteran journalist who covered the Oxnard Plain for the Ventura County Star.

FINANCIAL RELIEF FOR OPEN SPACE OWNERS
Changes to the Land Conservation Act are designed to provide support to Ventura County agricultural producers and assist landowners who use their property for farming or grazing while providing savings on their property taxes.
Requirements: Lot size of 20+ acres used for farming; 160+ acres for animal grazing. Between 50%-90% of land must be used for agriculture, depending on lot size and length of contract.
Deadline to apply: June 6, 2025
Cost: $1,000 deposit

To apply: Set up an appointment with Alec Thille, environmental resource analyst for the county, by calling (805) 933-2926 or emailing [email protected].

03/14/2025

Landmark groundwater management law hits 10-year mark
Progress made but big challenges remain

By Catherine Saillant

As officials mark the 10-year anniversary of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Ventura County growers are dealing with a more immediate challenge: meeting its goals while keeping well water affordable for agriculture.
Growers operate on narrow margins and the cost of infrastructure upgrades necessary to ensure a consistent groundwater supply should not fall solely on their shoulders, says Maureen McGuire, head of the Farm Bureau of Ventura County, in a recent letter to the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency.
The Farm Bureau recognizes that building water recycling, desalination and expanded recharge facilities are costly yet critical to overall plans to manage aquifer levels, she writes. But she also recommends an option called “demand management”—a strategy that would see growers incentivized to temporarily fallow land or switch to less water-intensive crops during periods of drought.
This would allow growers to make financial decisions about water usage without being forced to abandon farming altogether, McGuire says in the letter.
“Farmers face increasing costs for logistics, labor, and inputs, and additional costs associated with groundwater management could push many operations into financial distress,” she wrote.
The Farm Bureau’s comments are included in a mandated five-year-evaluation of the groundwater sustainability plan adopted by the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency in response to SGMA’s passage in 2014. The check-in on water users in the Oxnard, Pleasant Valley and Las Posas Valley subbasins is meant to assess progress in meeting sustainability goals required under SGMA, said Fox Canyon hydrologist Rob Hampson.
Litigation slows progress
Meeting agreed-upon goals is complicated by litigation that seeks to redefine allocation targets moving forward, Hampson said. The lawsuits, known as “adjudications,” present challenges in meeting sustainability goals set out in plans that have been approved and accepted by the state Department of Water Resources.
“It is possible to get to sustainability if we implement all of these projects that are proposed,’’ he said. “But it’s challenging to implement every single one. Right now a lot of resources are going towards legal costs and not toward building these projects.”
California lawmakers passed SGMA as a regulatory framework to bring overdrafted aquifers into balance by 2040. Under SGMA, local groundwater agencies were required to submit plans showing how basins will achieve long-term sustainability.
But the law ignited a round a legal skirmishes as some water users turned to adjudications to refine what is spelled out in sustainability plans. Lawyers specializing in California’s arcane water rights laws are busier than ever, filing suits that often pit farmer against farmer over the extent of pumping restrictions.
That dynamic played out in Santa Barbara County as global carrot companies Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway Farms worked out a groundwater management plan with other local water users and then launched litigation to challenge agreed-upon cutbacks. The unexpected legal costs have been high, said Jacob Furstenfeld, a Cuyama Valley cattle rancher and small farmer.
“I still want to believe in SGMA,’’ Furstenfeld told an assembly called “Saving Water and the Family Farm” at Cal State Channel Islands University last fall. “But it should be adjudication or SGMA, not both.”
Daryl Smith, an avocado and citrus grower in Moorpark, said he was similarly taken aback when a group of landowners calling themselves the Las Posas Valley Water Rights Coalition elected to challenge the basin’s SGMA management plan in court. The case was settled after five years with a reshuffling of water allocations.
“In adjudication the more you use the more you are allocated,” Smith said, because it’s based on historical use and not on SGMA’s science-backed formulas. Smith and other growers are appealing the court’s decision, saying they were not properly notified about the adjudication and left out of future water allotments.
“A lot of these small farmers could go away,” Smith said. “I consider that to be a loss.”
Judge signs off
In his lengthy judgment, Superior Court Judge Thomas Anderle found that the allocation targets achieved through litigation were a “prudent, legal and durable means to achieve sustainable groundwater management within the basin.” He assigned Fox Canyon as the “watermaster” to assure that groundwater targets are being met.
The next 10 years of SGMA will focus on implementing the plans developed so far. Projects and decisions aim to bring California’s groundwater basins to sustainable conditions by the early 2040s. Weather extremes and drought make this work even more critical, as the state must store and capture as much water as possible during wet years.
California has invested nearly $1 billion in SGMA in 10 years, including more than $100 million for local groundwater recharge projects through the Department of Water Resources. The Farm Bureau’s McGuire said state and federal grants, low-interest financing and cost-share agreements should play a role locally to pay for infrastructure upgrades and water purchases needed to bring aquifers to sustainable levels.
“We believe that with the right investments and cooperative efforts we can secure a sustainable future that supports agriculture and the entire community.”

Catherine Saillant is editor of Central Coast Farm & Ranch. She is a former staff writer at the Los Angeles Times and Ventura County Star.

03/14/2025

Proactive stance on Dacthal eases EPA ban
Ag commissioners in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties first asked for voluntary compliance

By Frank Nelson

Some California brassica farmers may have been caught unaware by the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent ban on the weedkiller known as DCPA, or Dacthal. But not thoseon the Central Coast.
Thanks to pro-active agricultural officials in both Ventura County and Santa Barbara County, growers of crops such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and cabbage, had plenty of warning the ban on dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate was coming.
The EPA signaled as much in a strong public statement in April 2024 and many growers had already stopped using the herbicide by August when the agency, alarmed by potential health risks, slammed on the brakes.
Specific concerns about harm to the unborn babies of women working with the herbicide–or even living near where it was being used–prompted the EPA to issue the first emergency stop order in almost 40 years.
Ventura Agricultural Commissioner Korinne Bell and Santa Barbara Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Noah Beyeler played key roles in alerting growers to the risk and steering them towards alternative products.
“We had not received any kind of indication that there was a local problem, that people were coming into hospitals or clinics with symptoms. But once something was brought to our attention, we felt we had to spread the word,” said Bell.
Just after the EPA’s April heads-up, she said herbicide use data showed 11 farmers were still using Dacthal. “I personally called all those growers, told them about the warning and got verbal commitments from many that they would stop using it.”
Brassica growers switch products
She said Dacthal was being applied for three relatively niche products – radishes, bok choy and kale; for more mainstream brassica crops, like cabbages, broccoli and Brussels sprouts, most growers had access to “viable, local alternatives.”
When a couple of growers were unsure if there was a suitable substitute herbicide available, Bell contacted the California Department of Pesticide Regulation for a list of approved possible alternatives which she passed on to the farmers.
“It felt like a victory because people voluntarily agreed to stop using it (Dacthal) which does not surprise me coming from Ventura County. I think we have a really amazing group of very progressive-minded growers.”
One of those growers was Ruben Jimenez, operations manager at GJ Farms in Fillmore, who was applying Dacthal to such crops as onions, kale, collard greens and mustard greens. He’s since switched to Prefar 4-E, a different herbicide that is not as effective and requires more hand weeding.
Jimenez said without Bell’s intervention he might have continued using Dacthal for longer.
“It’s something’s not good for the environment, I’m all for getting rid of it,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, Noah Beyeler was on a very similar information and advice mission. He’s based at the Santa Barbara County agricultural commissioner’s office in Santa Maria, in the heart of brassica-growing country.
Crops like broccoli and cauliflower are huge earners in this area, together accounting for $171 million in gross revenues according to the latest Santa Barbara County annual crop report.
Santa Barbara growers contacted
After the EPA’s public warning in April, Beyeler emailed and then called around a dozen growers and a handful of pest control businesses still using Dacthal mainly for specialty crops.
Beyeler said he received a “pretty good” response from those he talked with. “Most of them were happy to receive the information. It seemed like a lot of them … were already in talks with their pest control advisors and dealers regarding where things were headed.”
Beyeler says the manufacturer, American Vanguard Corporation (AMVAC), collected any remaining stocks of Dacthal held by dealers or growers during September and October.
Meanwhile, Ventura County is planning a pesticide disposal event which will enable growers and pest control businesses to get rid of unused Dacthal plus any other unwanted pesticides.

Frank Nelson has long covered business on the Central Coast. He divides his time between New Zealand and Ventura County.

03/14/2025

Lessons in the fields

Oxnard high special ed teacher Velia Soto brings her classroom outdoors

By Kim Lamb Gregory

Oxnard special ed senior Isaac Montes was thinking of becoming a mechanic when he graduates in spring. But after a school field trip to Petty Ranch in Ventura, he is now considering career possibilities in agriculture.
“I would maybe like to drive the truck that takes the produce to the stores,” said Montes, 17.
Exposing students to job options in the ag industry is one of the reasons Pacifica High School special education teacher Velia Soto takes students on field trips and works with them in a garden at their Oxnard high school. The goal is to highlight career pathways that are accessible to those with learning challenges.
“There are so many different careers where you don’t need college but are important,” Soto said. “They are special ed, but they are very capable.”
Montes was among 30 special education students at the Petty Ranch outdoor classroom led by educators from Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG), a nonprofit dedicated to familiarizing students with agriculture.
SEEAG educator Lisa Harmon asked the students to consider worms. “Pests or beneficial?”
“Beneficial!” called out one student. “They p**p in the soil.”
“That’s right,” Harmon said.
“And when they move around, they put air in the soil.”
Soto’s ag-focused curriculum won her a competitive spot in a national program called the On the Farm STEM Experience. Put on by the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture, educators gather once a year to discuss how best to integrate lessons in science, technology, engineering and math with careers in agriculture, said Rick Henningfeld, education director.
“When we use food and agriculture in the context of a science classroom, the more likely a student is to consider a place where they can use their skills if they go into the sciences.”
Soto’s session took place last summer in Kentucky—a major beef producer. Following online training, 30 educators spent four days visiting beef farms, auction houses and the University of Kentucky to hear about the science behind beef production.
Connecting the dots
Soto sees connecting students with the source of their food as a critical part of their education, especially in Ventura County. Students see fields all around them but often don’t connect it with the strawberries they buy in a grocery store.
“Their parents might even work there but they don’t realize what they do or why it’s important,’’ she said. “Learning more about agriculture will inspire them to tend to and take care of the land—to appreciate and engage in it.”
Soto, 47, and her brother grew up in Oxnard where their dad worked as a machinist and their mom worked in the state Employment Development Department. She discovered her career passion during a high school internship as a teacher’s aide with special ed students and earned a master’s in special education from CSU San Luis Obispo. She began teaching in the Oxnard high school district in 2003.
Soto has a law degree that can help her advocate for special education in ag and other fields. And as a UC Cooperative Extension board member, she’s hoping to influence the creation of new programs. “My vision would be an inclusive 4-H program—think Temple Grandin,” Soto said, referring to the scientist and scholar known for her work in animal behavior and autism.
Soto and her husband, attorney Peter De Domenico, are instilling respect for the land in their daughters, Clara, 11 and Phoebe, 7. When their Somis school had a small agriculture program a few years ago the girls cared for a horse and a pig, Soto said. They understand where their food comes from.
She also wants to pass on respect for the family’s indigenous roots. Soto’s father has ancestors from Guanajuato, Mexico, and her mother’s ancestors come from the Pueblo tribe of New Mexico. She participates in the Hummingbird Women’s Drum, an intertribal drumming group that recently performed at the Winter Solstice celebration at the Museum of Ventura County.
“Everything I do is connected with being an indigenous woman, respecting and connecting with the land through ag, climate and recycling—through reclaiming our cultural identity and celebrating who we are as people.”

Kim Lamb Gregory, a communication specialist at Cal State Channel Islands, is a veteran print and broadcast journalist.

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