State senator singles out UC Cooperative Extension

Before the state budget fiasco of 2009, Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) wasn't well known outside his district. But by making deals with the upper house's Democratic majority and voting for their budget, Maldonado practically became a household name. Increasing his popularity still more among many Californians, he named UC Cooperative Extension when listing California state budget priorities, according to a story by Harry Cline published yesterday in Western Farm Press.

Cline said Maldonado flew his own twin-engine aircraft to Tulare County for the World Ag Expo in February to participate in a pre-show visit with the news media.

“Agriculture is the No. 1 industry in the state and it needs to be protected and worked with,” Maldonado was quoted in the story.

Maldonado also said vocational agriculture programs in high schools, the Williamson Act to protect farmland from high taxes and the University of California Cooperative Extension are programs that should be protected from draconian budgets cuts in the future, Cline wrote.

Maldonado has an interesting back story. His father was a Bracero. As a child, Maldonado worked in the fields picking strawberries alongside his father to help support the family. After college, he returned to the family's small Santa Maria farm, which under his guidance grew from a half acre of strawberries into a 6,000-acre farm that employs more than 250 people and ships produce all over the world, according to his official biography. At the World Ag Expo event, Maldonado said there is the need is to bring back a temporary worker program for agriculture and the service industry.

“I do not want amnesty. We need temporary workers like my dad who came here to work. He did not come for a free ride. He came to work hard,” Maldonado was quoted in the Farm Press article.

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