`AGRICULTURAL' INITIATIVE ACTUALLY HURTS FARMERS.

One of the voices missing in the debate over how best to protect Ventura's farming community has been, ironically, farmers themselves. When the SOAR folks got together to craft their risky initiatives, they never consulted the people who work the family farms they claim need protecting. The result is a series of initiatives that collectively pose the single biggest threat to farming in the county today.

As the president and chief spokesman for the Ventura County Agricultural Association for the past 20 years, my job is to represent Ventura County's farming interests to ensure these companies remain economically viable. Ventura County is unique in California, with a disproportionately high number of small, family-run farms. Many of these families are fourth- and fifth-generation farmers who wish to remain in agriculture and intend to pass down their farms to their children.

Farming is their livelihood, their lifestyle and their heritage. So why don't we support the SOAR initiatives?

To begin with, the SOAR measures will dramatically increase development pressure on prime farmland that falls within existing cities. That's because the SOAR initiatives will force all new development into our already built-up cities. Where do they think new homes, businesses, churches and schools will be built?

Instead of protecting the groves and fields around our neighborhoods, SOAR will ensure their premature demise.

But the SOAR folks didn't stop at city boarders - they actually crafted new boundaries and expanded developable area to include thousands of acres of prime agricultural land in Oxnard, Camarillo and Santa Paula, putting those farmers directly in the path of development.

The SOAR measures impose a bizarre new regulatory scheme that would require individual farmers to prove to county bureaucrats that absolutely nothing could be grown on their land before they would be allowed to sell their land for any other use. If they fail to meet that test, individual farmers would have to seek approval from all county voters to sell even a small piece of their land.

These initiatives will also have a number of unintended consequences that could well drive many farmers into bankruptcy. For example, if the SOAR measures pass in November, farmers will be prohibited from making needed improvements to their land: new barns, greenhouses and processing facilities would require a countywide election - a cost too great for many farmers. If farmers can't respond to changes in markets, few, if any will survive.

Worse, the SOAR scheme would cause a catastrophic decline in the value of farmland. Most farmers depend on the value of their land to secure seasonal crop loans. Without these loans, crops simply will not be planted.

Until now, many citizens have been unaware of the consequences SOAR will have for farmers. The voters I've spoken to around the county are shocked to learn the truth about these initiatives. The Ventura County Agricultural Association and the Ventura County Farm Bureau have come out firmly against the SOAR measures. Many individual farmers have joined together with other citizens to set the record straight.

We're asking the citizens of Ventura County to read these measures for themselves. We believe that when voters read the fine print, they'll understand the threat these measures pose to both the farmers and the agricultural lifestyle everyone wants to protect. Please join us in preserving our heritage by voting no on SOAR.