Al Bonturi recognized by bureau, county supervisors as the SBC
farmer of year
Al Bonturi was honored as the 2010 Farmer of the Year by the San
Benito County Board of Supervisors Dec. 21, but his influence in
the agricultural industry expands beyond recent years and the
county line.
Bonturi has been an active farmer in San Benito County for more
than 70 years. He has served on the San Benito County Farm Bureau,
the California Walnut Commission, worked with the University of
California, Cooperative Extension, supported FFA and been a member
of the local Elk’s Lodge, among other things.
Al Bonturi recognized by bureau, county supervisors as the SBC farmer of year
Al Bonturi was honored as the 2010 Farmer of the Year by the San Benito County Board of Supervisors Dec. 21, but his influence in the agricultural industry expands beyond recent years and the county line.
Bonturi has been an active farmer in San Benito County for more than 70 years. He has served on the San Benito County Farm Bureau, the California Walnut Commission, worked with the University of California, Cooperative Extension, supported FFA and been a member of the local Elk’s Lodge, among other things.
“I was born and raised here, and I’m 85 now, and I’m still farming,” he said. “I gotta tell you it’s work, but I enjoy it. If I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t be doing it. It keeps me out of trouble. You meet a lot of nice people in the industry.”
Some of those he’s met through the years include Bill Coates, the UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor, and Joe Zanger, a board member for the San Benito County Farm Bureau and a past president. Both men describe Bonturi as a mentor.
“When I first arrived in the county nearly 35 years ago, he was a mentor to me,” Coates said. “He provided me with a lot of good ideas and a lot of knowledge.”
Zanger, who presented the Farmer of the Year award to Bonturi at the Farm Bureau’s annual meeting Nov. 6, said Bonturi has been influential with the Bureau since the ’50s.
“He’s the one with the institutional memory,” Zanger said. “He helped with good judgment and some of our investments…It’s always good to have someone around who people respect.”
Zanger said Bonturi was helpful when the Bureau was looking for a downtown office and that he played a key role in the purchase of the former Fifth Street property and the current location on San Benito Street.
At the dinner, Bonturi was caught off guard by the honor.
“Joe started his speech and he got about halfway through before I realized he was talking about me,” Bonturi said. “I didn’t know anything. My wife (Corrine) knew about it. I was sitting with our farm advisor, Bill Coates, and he knew about it.”
Bonturi doesn’t remember his reaction to the award, but he said he was probably sitting there with his mouth open.
“I was flabbergasted,” he said. “Anyhow, I thanked them for the honor. I didn’t think I would qualify for it, but they did it.”
He was more recently recognized at the Dec. 21 board of supervisors meeting, when Supervisor Anthony Botelho presented him with a certificate.
At 85, Bonturi still manages his ranch in North County, where he started working full time at 14.
“I lost my father so I was the oldest boy so I had to put the harness on and go to work,” he said. “Fortunately, he taught me everything I know. I knew the operation of the ranch so it was just a matter of doing things I did when he was there.”
Through the years Bonturi has grown apricots, prunes, table grapes and walnuts. He said apricots were the most “tedious.”
“We had to protect them from frost – we used to smudge in those days – but things change,” he said. “Apricots were the toughest and I’ve done grapes and prunes, probably next. In our county, here, throughout the years the easiest is probably walnuts.”
Coates said it was Bonturi who encouraged him to pursue a research project to create varieties of walnut trees that would be resistant to Blackline, a virus that decimated walnut orchards in the 1970s and ’80s.
“I was thinking of the county, but it’s now ended up statewide – the virus has spread statewide,” Bonturi said.
Coates and Bonturi travel to the UC cooperative extension headquarters once a year, usually in late winter to evaluate the different varieties that have been grafted together to create resistant trees.
In addition to the work on walnut trees, Coates said that Bonturi has shared information with him through the years that Coates has been able to pass on to other farmers.
“He’s been a wealth of information that I’ve been able to turn into research projects, or provide as information to other growers on how to do things,” Coates said.
Bonturi also served on the California Walnut Commission for many years. He retired from it last year. The state organization works to raise the profile of California-grown walnuts.
“The biggest thing is I was on the board when we hired our first advertising agency to advertise and promote walnuts,” Bonturi said.
The second contribution is that the agency asked different universities to conduct studies on the omega-3 fatty acids in the walnuts to confirm the health benefits of the nuts.
“We got the American Heart Association’s permission to use their logo on our packaging of walnuts because they are good for the heart,” he said.
Zanger also mentioned that Bonturi has been involved with the Pacheco Pass Water District.
“He worked hard to bring San Felipe water to the county and has been the guardian of the Pacheco Pass Water District and Dam for countless years,” Zanger said, in an e-mail.
Zanger also noted Bonturi’s life-long support of Future Farmers of America, of which he was a member when he was a boy.
“I’m very happy to recognize him after all these years,” Zanger said. “The board values his advice and input. I certainly did. He kind of mentored me on the board. I started in the early ’80s…He’s given me guidance and all the presidents over the past 20 years who looked for advice.”
