Tulare County Small Farms Advisor, Manuel Jimenez,
Retires
Manuel Jimenez went from hard-scrabble farmworker to
world-renowned farming authority, all while living in and serving his hometown
– the small, rural community of Woodlake, Calif. The University of California
Cooperative Extension advisor, who worked with small family farmers in Tulare
County for 33 years, retires in June.
Jimenez has a storied California heritage. His
grandmother was half Chumash Indian; his father an immigrant from Zacatecas,
Mexico. The extended family of farmworkers settled in Exeter, where his
grandfather, an early labor organizer, planned a strike in the 1950s, long
before Cesar Chavez came on the scene. Subsequent hard feelings forced the
family to migrate to other areas for work.
"My family was entrenched in farm labor,"
Jimenez said. "I had the good fortune to go to college."
Completing college wasn't easy. He married his wife
Olga right out of high school, and they immediately started a family. Jimenez
worked in the fields and Olga in a packing house while they scrambled to find
childcare.
Ultimately Jimenez earned a bachelor's degree in plant
sciences at Fresno State University in 1977. Not long after graduation, he was
named senior agronomist for the North American Farmers Cooperative, an
organization of 300 small-scale vegetable and fruit producers based in Fresno.
"We were responsible for visiting all the farmers
twice annually – 600 farm calls a year," Jimenez said. "I was
overwhelmed very quickly, but learned a lot."
Labels: Manuel and Olga, Manuel Jimenez and Olga, Manuel Jimenez Retires, Olga Jimenez, Small Farm Advisor Program
