gaate

Who Are We?

The Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau GAATE Foundation is a 501(c)(3) affiliate of the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau established in 2005 to promote and increase awareness and understanding of agriculture among Santa Barbara County’s educators, students and the general public.

The GAATE Foundation has four major components:

  1. K-12 Classroom Education

  2. Adult Education

  3. Consumer Education

  4. Farmer to Farmer Outreach

Financial support for the foundation comes from individual donors, agricultural organizations, and corporations/foundations. By working together, we can support agricultural research and education for the benefit of all.

Why we exist?

Agriculture faces many challenges and dealing with those challenges is crucial to keeping California family farms competitive in the world market.  A strong and viable agricultural industry will not continue unless we lay a sound foundation for it now.  One component we can use to strengthen that foundation for our children’s future is to educate them and the public about the many ways agriculture is woven through their daily lives.

As the public becomes further and further removed from the production of food and fiber, it becomes more important that educational programs and materials are available to create an understanding of the industry.

Our top priority is to keep the public aware of the importance of agriculture in their daily lives. As you can imagine, these efforts need a substantial amount of financial support from many funding sources, especially private donations.

It’s important to remember that agriculture reaches far beyond the farm. It is an industry that includes farmers and ranchers as well as many urban residents who are responsible for processing, packaging, marketing and transporting our food to America’s consumers.

If students are taught to appreciate agriculture from an early age they will grow up to be informed consumers. It is an informed consumer who will understand and appreciate the importance of protecting our farms and ranches from the challenges yet to come.