Home fuentes

Reference URL

Save to favorites

To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or document

To embed the entire object, paste this HTML in website

To link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or document

To embed this page, paste this HTML in website

Roy Fuentes: Fuentes Berry Farms

fuentes

Save page

2 of 3

View Description

Download

small (250x250 max)

medium (500x500 max)

large ( > 500x500)

Full Resolution

All (PDF)

This page

All

Subset

PDF
Text

Object Description

Title	Roy Fuentes: Fuentes Berry Farms
Series Title	Cultivating a Movement: An Oral History of Organic Farming and Sustainable Agriculture on California’s Central Coast. Edited by Irene Reti and Sarah Rabkin.
Creator	Fuentes, Roy, narrator Rabkin, Sarah, interviewer
Publisher	Santa Cruz, Calif. : University of California, Santa Cruz, University Library
Date of Publication	2010
Description/Abstract	44 pages. As president of Fuentes Berry Farms, Rogelio (Roy) Fuentes is one of many independent growers producing organic berries for Driscoll's--a company that was initiated more than a century ago by two strawberry farmers on California’s Central Coast, and has since evolved into an international concern devoted to research, breeding, production, sales and distribution of conventionally and organically farmed strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. Driscoll’s CEO Miles Reiter and his brother Garland, CEO of Reiter Affiliated Companies, are the grandsons of Joseph "Ed" Reiter, who began growing strawberries in the Pajaro Valley with Dick Driscoll in 1904. The Reiters have a reputation for providing partnership opportunities for talented, hardworking, ambitious Mexican American farmers. Fuentes was born in San Pedro Tesistan, Jalisco, Mexico, and came to Watsonville, California, as a teenager. He spent summers harvesting the berry fields his father managed. After graduating from Watsonville High School in 1979, Fuentes worked in banking for a while, but five years later returned to the fields. He began harvesting strawberries and rapidly worked his way up to management positions. Gradually branching out into blackberries and raspberries, he also became interested, in 1994, in organic cultivation. Since 2003 he has been producing organic berries exclusively. His growing company employs some 100 workers, providing health insurance and a small number of paid holidays. Sarah Rabkin interviewed Roy Fuentes on June 16, 2009, at the Reiter Affiliated Companies offices in Salinas, California. That morning, the San Jose Mercury News had reported that an organic blackberry grower near Watsonville had lost twenty percent or more of his crop to a recent invader from Australia, the light brown apple moth--sending "a shudder" through the agricultural community. Local organic berry growers were engaging in concerted deliberations about how best to respond.
Subject.LCSH	Berries Minority farmers Pajaro River Valley (Calif.)
Subject.Local	Sustainable agriculture--history Organic farming--United States--History Organic farming--California Fuentes Berry Farm
Geographic Location.TGN	Watsonville Santa Cruz (county) California United States
Language	English
Owning Institution & Contact Info	Regional History Project, University Library, UC Santa Cruz
Owning Institution Homepage	Owning Institution homepage: http://library.ucsc.edu/regional-history-project
Copyright Statement	All uses of these manuscripts are covered by copyright agreement between the interviewees and the Regents of the University of California. Under “fair use” standards, excerpts of up to six hundred words (per interview) may be used without the Regional History Project’s permission as long as the materials are properly cited. The citation should include the title of the oral history, the name of the narrator, the date of publication, the pages of the oral history from which the excerpts come, and the fact that the oral history was produced by the Regional History Project at the University Library, UC Santa Cruz. Any excerpting beyond six hundred words requires the written permission of the University Librarian, appropriate citation, and may require a fee, especially if this is a commercial publication or production. Under certain circumstances, not-for-profit users may be granted a waiver of the fee. In all instances, the Regional History Project requests a copy of the publication for the UCSC Library’s collection. Please contact ihreti@ucsc.edu for copyright questions.