New Farm Bureau podcast shares 'Voice of Agriculture'

By Caleb Hampton

A new podcast produced by the California Farm Bureau is giving a voice to the state’s farmers and ranchers.

“Voice of California Agriculture,” hosted by longtime Farm Bureau field representative Gary Sack, was launched in March to keep listeners informed about the latest news affecting Golden State agriculture. The weekly podcast is based on the reporting and news coverage of Ag Alert® and is designed for farmers and ranchers who may not get time to sit down with a print newspaper.

“Farming encompasses so much time,” Sack said, speaking about the inspiration for the podcast. “Either you’re in the pickup or you’re on the tractor.”

With Sack hosting, the program is in knowledgeable and experienced hands. In his primary role at the Farm Bureau, Sack works with farmers and ranchers in 15 counties on a daily basis, staying on top of the issues they encounter on the ground.

He also brings to the news program more than a decade of radio experience, reclaiming a role he took on when he first joined the Farm Bureau 45 years ago.

In the 1960s, California Farm Bureau began producing a radio program called “Voice of Agriculture.”

“It was a 15-minute daily farm radio show that we produced in-house locally, that then we would send out to radio stations in the state,” said Sack, who produced and hosted the show from 1979 until 1990.

In those days, major stories included the impact of currency exchange rates on agricultural exports and political wrangling around California’s response to invasive pests.

Sack recalled providing leading coverage of a standoff between former California Gov. Jerry Brown and former President Ronald Reagan over whether to use aerial spraying to neutralize an invasion of Mediterranean fruit flies that threatened a variety of crops grown in the state.

“We were getting calls from around the world,” Sack said.

Issues covered so far on the “Voice of California Agriculture” podcast include Colorado River water conservation, farm labor union laws, the apricot harvest, mental health on farms, zero-emission trucking mandates and the impact of avian influenza on farms.

Sack typically devotes the beginning of the podcast to a roundup of state and federal policy updates. The program, which runs around 25 minutes, usually features an interview with a public figure or an expert on a certain topic.

“Then I try to wrap it up with something more food-oriented or consumer-oriented,” Sack said, adding the program “is still evolving.”

Podcast guests have included California Farm Bureau President Shannon Douglass, Farm Employers Labor Service Chief Operating Officer Bryan Little and state Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil, D-Jackson.

“I really get a lot of the inspiration for the podcast from what we are doing at California Farm Bureau,” Sack said. “It lets them know what Farm Bureaus are doing—what we’re involved in and how we’re helping farmers and ranchers out there in their everyday lives.”

One way that Farm Bureau’s work enters the news cycle is when its Government Affairs Division helps shape policy in Sacramento.

“We’re there at the Capitol, and maybe a bad bill still passes and is signed into law, but it’s less bad because we’ve got some amendments in it, or maybe we’re able to stop bills altogether,” Sack said.

Trevor Airola, who runs a beef cow-calf operation in Calaveras County, said he listens to the “Voice of California Agriculture” while he’s on the ranch or commuting to and from his nonfarm job as an arborist for a utility company.

“I can listen to the podcast and get an in-depth analysis of the important issues,” said Airola, who serves on the California Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers State Commitee. “It’s my weekly check-in of what’s going on.”

Like many farmers and ranchers, Airola spends most of his time on the go, which can make it difficult to keep up with the latest developments he needs to know about as a YF&R State Committee member.

“I’m putting in really long days, as we all are in farming, so I don’t always have time to sit down and read every email I get or read everything in Ag Alert,” he said. “The podcast is really nice because in my commute or when I’m at the ranch working, I can get caught up.”

He said he was especially interested in Sack’s interview with Alvarado-Gil, who represents Airola’s home district in the state Senate.

In the interview, featured in the June 13 episode, Alvarado-Gil spoke about legislation she has authored this year to help farmers and rural communities.

Senate Bill 945, which is sponsored by the Farm Bureau and has passed in the state Senate, would require state agencies to maintain a data platform tracking the impact of wildfire smoke on public health.

“We’re very happy to be able to take some of the ideas that your members across the state identify as high-need, and this was at the top of the list,” Alvarado-Gil said on the podcast.

The proposed law would implement a public health data gathering process “so that we can use that data to inform everything from resources to rural communities to helping us to balance the insurance market,” Alvarado-Gil said. “This is going to help protect the lives of the families in our farms and our ag community.”

“We need to explore every way we can to get the word out with all the good things that we’re doing,” Sack said, noting the podcast has already been listened to nearly 2,500 times, according to analytics he has viewed.

Airola said he appreciates the “no fluff” approach Sack takes with the podcast. “It’s concise; it’s informative; it’s substantive,” he said. Plus, “Gary has the perfect voice for radio. Not only is the podcast interesting, but it’s easy to listen to.”

Future episodes may include coverage of the Kings County Farm Bureau’s fight against state intervention on groundwater pumping and on damage caused by grasshoppers to field crops, Sack said.

The podcast can be found by searching “Voice of California Agriculture” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast platforms or by visiting www.cfbf.com/podcast. New episodes are released on Thursdays.

(Caleb Hampton is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at champton@cfbf.com.)