Past president, office manager honored for service

A first-generation farmer from Butte County who served as president of the California Farm Bureau is the recipient of the organization’s Distinguished Service Award for his lifelong contributions to agriculture.

The award for Jamie Johansson was announced during the 106th California Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in Monterey last week.

In addition, Sandy Nixon of Tulare County was honored with the California Farm Bureau’s 2024 Helen Roberti Lifetime Service Award.

Johansson grows olives and citrus fruit in Oroville and operates an olive oil company, Lodestar Farms.

Serving as a statewide California Farm Bureau officer for 14 years, Johansson was the 16th president from December 2017 to December 2023. He is a former chairman of the California Young Farmers & Ranchers State Committee and a former vice president of the Butte County Farm Bureau.

His other leadership roles include serving as an Oroville city council member and vice mayor, co-founding the Sierra Oro Farm Trail Association and leading a Boy Scout troop.

Sandy Nixon is often called the “glue” of the Tulare County Farm Bureau. An employee for 53 years, Nixon serves as the office manager, bookkeeper, archive manager, livestock yards secretary and historian.

She was hired in 1962 at age 19, left temporarily to raise a family and returned permanently in 1974. She’s worked under 29 county presidents and has worked directly with and mentored about two dozen other employees. Colleagues said her institutional knowledge has been invaluable in advising the executive directors, the board and members.

The award Nixon received is named in honor of Helen Roberti, who served as secretary/manager of the Plumas-Sierra County Farm Bureau for nearly 70 years. Roberti was hired as secretary in 1956 for $25 per month and retired in 2014 but continued to carry on most of her duties as a volunteer until her death at age 89 on July 8, 2024.

That legacy of service, plus Roberti’s dedication to agricultural education, led the California Farm Bureau to name her the first recipient of its Lifetime Service Award in 2013. Since then, the award has been known as the Helen Roberti Lifetime Service Award. It recognizes dedicated service by a staff member of a county Farm Bureau in California or of the California Farm Bureau.