Vintner featured in farming history display

San Diego County Fair’s agriculture barn included a farming history display with life-size cardboard cutout photographs of local farmers holding signs noting the total United States population and the percentage of the population in farming that census year. One of those farmers was Beth Edwards of Edwards Vineyard & Cellars in Ramona.

“It was interesting because I actually came out and worked in the Ask a Farmer role,” Edwards said. “All of a sudden people do a double take because they see my life-size photo.”

Edwards handled the Ask a Farmer duty twice: on June 23 and June 30. “It was fun engaging people from all over the area,” she said.

San Diego County Farm Bureau organized the display and selected the farmers to be photographed at a board meeting.

“They just asked if the board members following the meeting would consider coming in and having a life-sized photo taken because their idea was to promote farming in San Diego,” Edwards said.

She agreed to be part of the display.

“I’d really like to support farming because we’re at a critical point in this nation,” she said.

The first U.S. census was taken in 1790. The sign showing that the nation’s population was 3.9 million and that farmers comprised 90 percent of the labor force then was held by Ben Hillebrecht of Hillebrecht Farms in Escondido. Although the exhibit did not have information for 1800 to 1830, Ismael Resendiz of Resendiz Brothers Protea Growers in Rainbow provided the 1840 figures of 17 million Americans with 69 percent of the labor force in farming.

Edwards held the 1960 sign. The population from that census was 180 million, and 8.3 percent of America’s workforce was in farming.

Bob Vice of Mystery Mountain Grove in Valley Center and Fallbrook held the 1970 sign that showed the U.S. population was 204 million with 4.6 percent of the workforce in farming. The census data ended with the 1990 figures held by Alysha Stehly of Vesper Vineyards in Escondido. That census year the American population was 261 million with 2.6 percent in farming.

“I think it’s a scary figure when you look at the average age of farmers,” said the 58-year-old Edwards.

The first census year in which fewer than half of the workforce was in agriculture was 1880. Tony Godfrey of Olive Hill Greenhouses in Fallbrook noted that 49 percent of the workforce had an agricultural occupation that year.

Edwards and her husband Victor began growing grapes in 2002.

“I don’t come from a family of farmers, so we entered into it, and neither did my husband, so there is hope that people who don’t have a history of farming might enter into the field,” she said.

Edwards noted that the presence of farm equipment in the display was well-received by youth and might encourage some of them to consider careers in agriculture. She added that the diversity of farming may encourage people to become farmers.

“We’ve got the organic movement, which is awesome,” she said.

The display also included a Friends of Farming silo. Friends of Farming is a San Diego County Farm Bureau project that encourages the support of those who are not in agriculture professionally. The history of farming in San Diego County display included leading crops and water milestones.

“To me I thought it was a very good display showing innovation and how people who are farming are doing so much with so little,” Edwards said.