‘Hasta luego, Big Sis’

‘Hasta luego, Big Sis’

Save the Farm System

California Dreamin’

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            The news of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano’s departure from her reign of multilayered chaos in Washington was no shocker. The pending destination of the University of California system was. Just when the risks of gutting one of the world’s most productive agricultural systems seemed to  peak, another shoe has fallen.

            Big Sis and her brand of liberal annihilation are going to invade a last bastion of good science, and, the risk is she will commence spreading her partisan black magic.

            California, and most particularly, California agriculture … God bless you!

            Rack ‘em up, boys

            In a recent ranking of agricultural colleges, the University of California at Davis was named number one. That ranking wasn’t just for California. It wasn’t for all American universities, either, where extraordinary institutions exist. That prestigious ranking was for the entire world.

            If a young student is going to go to Davis, endure, and succeed, that person has to have moxie. The results are manifested variously. The school’s graduates have become synonymous with world standards in education, research, and extension.

            The school and the California system’s backdrop of agricultural production is a major factor of its success and growth in excellence. Starting in the 1860’s, the system has supported the proliferation of agriculture that now maintains a lock on eight of the top ten producing counties in the nation. Lead by Fresno County, the counties of Tulare, Monterrey, Kern, Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, and Ventura are consistently within the top 10 producers.

            The state consistently produces $35 billion in annual agricultural revenues. It is a monster, and … it is a precious American resource.    

            Napolitano management

            Unlike my Arizona colleagues, I have not produced in an agricultural system under Napolitano. I have produced, however, under her sphere of influence in border protection and national security. We are under the direct influence of every policy the Border Patrol invokes.

            Likewise, I was under a similar sphere of influence of the UC extension system for 20 years when we farmed in that state’s San Joaquin Valley, on its Delta, and on its Central Coast. The comparison of relationships is stark.

            The quality of relationship with the California extension service has become more apparent with time. The direct influence it had on our success was profound. We didn’t just get better by accident. We got better because of the underpinnings of that research and the practical applications of it in our farming practices.

            We had superb relationships with many experts who became vested in the entire system. Our common goals became joint successes, and both sides benefited.

            There is no such relationship with the Napolitano led Border Patrol. There is condescension from its hierarchy that is stifling. No longer is there a union of ‘us’ in the relationship.            

            That was not always the case. When then Sector Chief Victor Manjarrez arrived to lead the El Paso Sector, his agents were reminded and taught that a relationship with resident ranchers was vital. Those stewards were extra eyes with practical insight. They were the resident Americans who were the subject of what national security actually implies. If their daily observations equated to tight border security, the entire nation was the real beneficiary. That cause and effect relationship is lost upon the Napolitano crew.

            Then, there were social skills.

Manjarrez agents were taught many things including slowing down when passing through ranch headquarter areas and stopping to greet the residents. There was even an official assigned to ranch liaison. When Manjarrez was transferred to the Tucson Sector and subsequently discharged from the Border Patrol that approach evaporated.

            In its place came the command demeanor that cannot be characterized as engaging or friendly. If there wasn’t the engagement of a core of the agent group, the relationship would have to be defined only as cold and militaristic. There is a distinctive ‘them and us’ barrier.

            If the ranching community was polled to recall the last visit they had with an agent who stopped for constructive input, most would have to say they cannot remember. If they were asked when they spoke to the Sector Chief on the ground or in a meeting, the response would likely be when Victor Manjarrez was chief, and …that will soon be four years ago.

            Task at hand

            California has made the list as the most poorly managed state in the union. With all of its vast resources and even greater potential, it wallows in the throes of liberalism. The story is dreary and repetitive. The goose and the golden eggs are being consumed at an unsustainable rate.

            Its Agriculture is clearly in the sights and the actions of the liberal assault. Every American should learn about the systematic dismantling of the San Joaquin Valley’s ‘West Side’. Acre per acre, it might be the most productive resource in the entire world. If it was a territory of Israel, it would be the breadbasket of the Middle East.

        It is an area that came into being by government sponsorship of war time commodity demands, and it is an area that has been vilified by the subsequent success of free and independent Americans who took the government up on its offer. It is being dissected by political plumbers and its water has been shut off or diverted. It sits fallow and dying and a hugely important farm community is at risk of destruction. It is an abomination of political exploitation. The Founders would call it what it actually is … tyrannical.

      The same social engineers destroying the West Side are the hooligans that now control the agricultural educational system. To add insult to injury, the Napolitano management style is about to gain control of that citadel of agriculture.

      It is time to sell it … to save it.

The future

      The extent of the billions of shortfall in the worst managed state seems to grow daily. The ensconced trust society of the urban centers, Hollywood, and the coast simply don’t get it. The polarized barrier they perpetuate is as distinct as the world of Harry Potter and the Dust Bowl.

      Somebody needs to approach the state and offer to buy the agricultural segment of its educational system. Sure, it would take a container of cash, but our new world is teaching us many things. One of them is the bricks and mortar mentality of behemoth university systems is hastening their extinction. Our technical world has the ability to expand exponentially without laying a single brick or hiring another tedious bureaucrat.

      Buy the agricultural component of the University of California system!

      Vacate the bricks and mortar edifices of liberalism and move back to the farm that exists, in part, because of that institution’s past glory. Allow the Napolitano led no borders crew to fill those existing structures with their environmental mobilists, virtual unrealists, and women’s study advocates.

      Allow those doomed ships to sink, but preserve and revitalize agriculture that actually can … save our society.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “I’ll suggest five possible buyers for that farm system … Stewart Resnick, Texas, Howie Buffett, Israel, and or any combination thereof.”

What an interesting idea.  Let's hope it happens and sets a trend.  Moving anything from the public sector to the private sector is a good move.