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It all started out 20 years ago when Jeannie Lopez started working for Joe Aiello, owner of Uesugi Farms. Jeanne is the office manager but has her hands in everything. Jeannie got the job from a friend who got hired at Uesugi Farms. Her friend called her about the job just when Jeannie’s job at the time was moving so she thought “why not”. She has been there ever since, holding the company together. When there is a problem, she is the person that everyone comes to for solutions. Jeannie enrolled in one of the first Short Courses, when it was voluntary. She took the water quality message to heart and went to work implementing what she learned on all of the Uesugi Farms properties – even those in the Central and Imperial Valleys and in Mexico. Jeannie says that, when she took the short course, she learned that they were already doing a lot of the Best Management Practices, which was good, but that there was more to do. Since Uesugi Farms leases a lot of property, each property has its own binder. In order to develop and track Farm Plans for their 50+ properties, Jeannie hired Griselda Espinoza, who had been an outside seasonal employee, as the full time Farm Plan manager. |
 Some of the new practices that they have implemented have been controversial - especially leaving a field that has just been picked and let it get overgrown. Joe Aiello, the owner, was strongly against this at first. He said that, when he went to school at Cal-Poly and majored in Crop Science, he was trained that if “you leave it with weed, the rodents will come and birds and what not”. He was very unhappy, but has supported her efforts to protect the land and make sure the water stays on his property. |
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 The owner of each leased property knows that Jeannie has taken the class, that there is a completed farm plan for each property at the office, and that the Farm Plans change and are updated on a regular basis. Uesugi Farms develops new Plans and removes Plans as they add or terminate leases, or if owners or other information changes.In order to make sure that Water Quality is implemented by everyone on the farms, Jeannie works with Michael Aiello, the Farm Manager, to make sure that he understands all the regulations, upcoming changes, and what to look for when out in the field. This is especially important since he is the one going to all the fields. She is making sure that he stays on top of things so that Uesugi Farms is protecting Water Quality in practice as well as in principal. They also protect their riparian area (they have properties directly abutting Carnadero Creek) and make sure that is working. |
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