Investment supports next generation of agriculture

By Linda DuBois

Farmers Jim and Normita Spinetta invested $200,000 in a fund established by the California Farm Bureau to help cultivate the next generation of agricultural leaders. Their donation supports the California Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers & Ranchers Open Discussion Meet, a program that helped shape Jim Spinetta’s own career nearly two decades ago.

Spinetta is a fourth-generation winegrape grower whose family owned the historic Charles Spinetta Winery in Amador County until three years ago, when the family sold it to Jim’s childhood friend, Robert D’Agostini. 

Spinetta now lives in El Dorado County, where he grows citrus fruit on 2 acres. He’s serving as both the Amador County Farm Bureau president and the El Dorado County Farm Bureau vice president.

Spinetta said the donation to the fund is a way to ensure young people in agriculture have access to the leadership-building opportunities he had.

“Everyone says, ‘I need to give back,’ but my mom would always say, ‘You need to give forward. You need to establish a legacy and make a change,’ so I’m giving forward to future generations,” Spinetta said.

The Discussion Meet is a competition in which young farmers gather in a committee-style meeting to discuss four real-world agricultural challenges and find viable solutions. Spinetta won the state-level event in 2005 and went on to place in the final four at the national level the following year. He also won the Achievement Award in 2006, earning a top 10 finish nationally.

The contest topics are released several months before the competition. Spinetta said he took advantage of long hours on a tractor to study for the meet.

Spinetta noted that it’s not just the young farmers who benefit from the event. The solutions the participants come up with are often used by the Farm Bureau at the local and national levels, he said.

When he won in 2005, the final round focused on the topic, “Where will tomorrow’s agricultural workforce come from?” He pointed out that the same challenges they addressed 20 years ago are still relevant today, adding that when the family’s winegrape operation tried to use local labor, “people wouldn’t want to do it, or they did it but then just couldn’t physically handle it.”

He credits the YF&R programs with honing his communication skills, expanding his policy knowledge and introducing him to a professional network that remains important today. 

These people include Shannon Douglass, now president of the California Farm Bureau. 

“Shannon was a spitfire. Boy, was she good,” Spinetta said. “She knew how to communicate and bring people together, and she had this plethora of knowledge.” 

That’s one reason he said he completely trusts her to help direct how his donations to Farm Bureau are used.

The Spinettas’ donation to the fund—earmarked to increase the prize pool for Discussion Meet winners—is already having an impact, according to Ryan Amaral, Young Farmers & Ranchers program director.

Amaral said increasing the winners’ monetary awards is a great incentive for potential participants, and he’s seen increased participation. 

“This allows us to have a more robust competition and ensure the best candidate is representing California YF&R at the national competition,” he said.

Amaral said the Spinettas’ donation is the largest ever designated for a YF&R program since he’s been the statewide director. 

“It is a very generous gift that will empower YF&R members to get more involved with Discussion Meet and beyond,” he said.

Spinetta’s decision to make the donation was also a tax-planning strategy. After selling the Amador property and incurring significant capital gains, he chose to donate appreciated stock directly to the California Bountiful Foundation. The foundation was then able to sell the shares and receive the full cash value. He said he will donate another sizable amount benefiting YF&R to be presented at its annual meeting in December.

Spinetta’s passion for leadership development extends beyond YF&R. He said he also benefited from Leadership Farm Bureau, a program teaching etiquette, professionalism and global awareness. He said he plans to support and potentially sponsor the program in the future.

“It taught me how to give interviews, how to talk to legislators, how to travel internationally, how to represent agriculture,” he said. “Those are skills I use to this day.”

The family’s philanthropic work doesn’t stop at Farm Bureau programs. The Spinettas also created a $200,000 endowment through the Amador Community Foundation. The interest supports scholarships for Latino students, particularly first-generation youths—a way to thank the vineyard and winery workers who helped build their legacy.

“I wasn’t the boss who sat there from the window or air-conditioned cab. I worked with my crews. They’re my family,” Spinetta said.

He continues to mentor others and encourages current Farm Bureau officers to support young members any way they can.

He emphasized that charitable gifts can include more than just land or cash. Equipment, stocks, equities and more can be donated, and he said he hopes to inspire other farmers to donate what they can to help the next generation.

“I could have done what most people do and write a fat six-digit check to the government, …  but I made a charitable gift instead,” he said. “Others can do that, too. You can make charitable gift donations to help out an organization you care about and decide how it is going to be used.”

Linda DuBois is the assistant editor of California Bountiful magazine. She can be reached at ldubois@cfbf.com.

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