| Q&A BLUEGRASS STATE OF MIND We sat down for a wide-ranging conversation with BRENT BURCHETT, Executive Director of the <strong>SLO</strong> County Farm Bureau, who, in addition to providing a long list of recommended sipping bourbons, provided an interesting perspective on the local ag scene. Here are some highlights… Okay, Brent, let’s talk about where you got your start. Well, if you can’t tell from my accent, I’m not a California native. I moved here from Kentucky last year. Now, I wouldn’t have come here without a good reason. I miss Kentucky a lot, but my fiancé is from San Luis Obispo County, the Carizzo Plains. Her family’s ranched there for six or seven generations; they’ve been here a long time. I was a farm kid too. We raised corn, soybeans, and tobacco. There’s not any tobacco here, so my crop knowledge has been pretty useless. Basically, there’s nothing you can’t grow here. Let’s see, what else? I have one older brother. He’s still in Kentucky. I played football growing up. I did speech team. I was on the debate team. Did storytelling; that was kind of my favorite thing to do. We tell a lot of old-timey stories. It’s a Southern thing to do, get out and tell tall tales and storytelling. Let’s talk about stories. Yeah, so there were these competitions. You basically get a script and memorize it. I remember one that was an old Southern tale. It was actually adapted from a play called “Wiley and the Hairy Man” about these kids who caught catfish using dynamite back in the World War II era. Those explosions accidentally alerted the local militia, and all these local rednecks came out and chased them down the road. That was fun. But mostly we worked. I’d never been to a beach until late in high school. I went with some friends. It was really weird because when I came here, I was like, “Oh, the beach is going to be awesome.” I ran into the ocean and I didn’t realize that it was quite a bit colder than it is in the Gulf of Mexico. But, like I said, we mostly worked as kids. That’s what you’re expected to do as a farm kid to help your family. We all had little side businesses. I sold sweet corn; that was one of the fun things we did in the summertime. What do you miss about Kentucky? Oh, for one, there’s this stuff that falls from the sky. They call it rain. I miss hearing rainfall. The weather’s awesome in <strong>SLO</strong>, but there’s something about having four full seasons. I also miss Southern hospitality. I miss fried chicken. Put that on the list. Ya’ll don’t have any good fried chicken here in <strong>SLO</strong> County. I miss horse racing, and basketball. Basketball’s not a big thing here, but in Kentucky, whether you’re ten years old or a hundred, you know exactly who’s playing for the Kentucky Wildcats. And you know who’s being recruited for next year. It’s kind of like a religion, almost. I miss the Big Blue Nation, the UK basketball. They had to cancel the season this year, which was just crazy. I couldn’t believe that. They canceled the Derby too, so I don’t know what the hell the people doing this year. No basketball, no bourbon tours, no Kentucky basketball, no horse race. That’s just nuts think about. What did you know about the Central Coast before moving here? I had been to <strong>SLO</strong> County maybe two or three times before we made the move. There was an opening here at the Farm Bureau. It’s a member advocacy organization, so our members are farmers and ranchers. We’re not government entity. We are a private nonprofit that advocates for farmers’ and ranchers’ freedom to farm. That means, basically, I’m going to County Board of Supervisors meetings, to Planning Commission meetings, to the Regional Water board, some other state entities, and interacting with our congressional delegation to make sure that our elected officials know what’s going on here in agriculture; that they appreciate that we’re a big part of the economy. I’ve found that a lot of people don’t realize that last year <strong>SLO</strong> County agriculture exceeded $1 billion in crop and livestock sales for the first time. It’s a huge industry. To put it in context, the entire state of Kentucky comes in at about $5 billion. So just this one county is nearly a fifth of all of Kentucky. That’s pretty awesome. are and to What does the future hold for farming in our county? We have a Young Farmers & Ranchers program that the Farm Bureau operates. It’s a mixture of young professionals, but mostly it’s Cal Poly and Cuesta kids. They’re just so fired up for agriculture. It’s neat to see what the next generation is going to do because there’s not many new farmers coming up in the pipeline. It makes you wonder what American agriculture will look like twenty years from now. It’s kind of scary. I think some of them get frustrated. It’s a little different here. In Kentucky, being a farmer is like being a teacher or a doctor or a nurse—somebody that’s really valued by the community. In California, I think farmers are sometimes viewed with suspicion. People wonder if they’re polluting or doing something that’s not right. People in Kentucky think California is another country, so when I told everybody I was dating a California girl, they said, “What in the world?” a <strong>SLO</strong> <strong>LIFE</strong> 26 | <strong>SLO</strong> <strong>LIFE</strong> MAGAZINE | AUG/SEP <strong>2020</strong>
To hear better is great. To listen to what you hear is even greater. To love what you hear is the greatest of all. Helping You Hear the Things You Love Call us today for your consultation 805541-1790 www.KarenScottAudiology.com AUG/SEP <strong>2020</strong> | <strong>SLO</strong> <strong>LIFE</strong> MAGAZINE | 27
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