Paul Betancourt

Paul Betancourt is an FCFB At-Large Director

Paul Betancourt, of Kerman, originally had zero ties to agriculture. In fact, no one had farmed in his family for the past five generations. He has now become a leader within the agriculture community and has been farming now for more than 25 years.

Betancourt was born in New York City in 1959 and lived in Pennsylvania until he was seven. The Betancourt family then moved to San Diego, where Betancourt lived for 11 years.

After graduating from Clairemont High School in 1977, Betancourt attended and graduated from Westmont College, receiving a bachelor’s degree in religious studies. Westmont is a private Christian college in Santa Barbara.

While at Westmont, Betancourt met his wife, Sheryl. Upon graduation in 1981, Betancourt began working for Sheryl’s father, Walt Von Flue, introducing him to agricultural work. The Von Flues farm on the west side of Fresno County as VF Farms.

Betancourt started off with the cattle ranch portion of VF Farms in Coalinga. He enjoyed it so much he decided agriculture would be his profession and that he would stay in Kerman, so he moved to the farm in Kerman to continue farming where he began to raise a family.

The Betancourt family now farms 765 acres, which includes 125 acres of almonds and 640 acres of field crops. Depending on the year and the marketplace, Betancourt has farmed on the 640 acres barley, wheat, cantaloupes, and both Acala and American-Pima cotton.

While Betancourt quickly learned the science of farming, he wanted to learn the business side of agriculture, and picked up a second major at California State University, Fresno in ag business, and finished his courses in 1986.

Falling into agricultural education

In 1992, Betancourt read the book “Trashing the Planet,” by Dixie Lee Ray, which featured a message: “Everyone is telling the story of agriculture but the farmers themselves.” He took the saying to heart, and called the Farm Bureau office.

“I joined Farm Bureau when I first started farming because I thought that is what good farmers should do,” Betancourt said. “But I called the office after I read the book because I wanted to participate in educational outreach to classrooms.”

Sure enough, Betancourt was put in touch with Patsy Milton, of Farm Bureau, and implemented curriculum from Darrel Schmall, the owner of a pizza farm in Madera. He spent two years participating with Milton in Farm Bureau’s Fabulous Food Machine Program, mixing in discussions about pizza. “Children can relate to pizza, so we would go through the different ingredients of the pizza and how agriculture was key in making the contents of the pizza,” he said.

Throughout the years, Betancourt’s involvement has grown to more advanced issues, especially the challenges facing the valley’s water quality and availability. “I naturally fell into these issues because this is the primary issue facing the farming community,” he said. “I deal with water [as a farmer] every day.”

Betancourt was a graduate of the California Ag Leadership Program, Class XXV. “This was a fabulous experience,” he said. “The people we met, the things we learned, and places we visited made the program fantastic.”

Betancourt also participated in California Farm Bureau’s Leadership Program, and has been on the FCFB Board since 1994. He served as FCFB President from 2000 to 2002 and now is a Director At-Large. “I feel that we have a great story to tell,” he said.

Outside of water, Betancourt said that globalization and how we trade with foreign countries needs to be emphasized by the agriculture industry. “This is sometimes overlooked,” he said. “We need to focus on the quality of our product, and tell everyone how the Valley grows quality food.” As a result, Betancourt is pursuing a master’s degree in international relations at Fresno State.

Betancourt also has taken his knowledge and volunteerism to other causes. The Board that involves the most time is the Regional Water Quality Control Board, in which he has served for two years. He also is treasurer for the Valley Clean Air Now Board, Advisory Board for Sustainable Conservation in San Francisco, Kerman Unified School Board, Covenant Church of Kerman Board and president of the Kerman Rotary Board.

Family-Oriented

Betancourt has been married to Sheryl since 1980. They have two children: Heidi, 25, and Jonathen, 22. Heidi is a graduate of Fresno Pacific and teaches fourth grade in Sanger. Jonathen is in the Tenth Mountain Division in the New York Infantry of the U.S. Army. He will be deployed to Iraq in November and will finish school when he returns.

“Joining the Army and being part of the military has always been something Jonathen has wanted to do,” Betancourt said. “He really enjoys it.”

In addition to working and serving on various boards, Betancourt loves to read books, travel, hike, take pictures and research family history.

As you go along the stairwell to Betancourt’s upstairs bedrooms, you would see an impressive assortment of pictures along the wall. “I take my camera whenever I travel and whenever I go hiking,” he said. “I am willing to hike anywhere, and I tend to mostly hike in the afternoon when time allows.”

It only makes sense that Betancourt’s trips to Europe reflect all of his passions.

Betancourt has a passion for researching family history. While his last name may imply he might be Portuguese, he is actually half Puerto Rican, and the other half is Swedish and Spanish. He has traveled to Sweden, Denmark and England and has found cousins in which they lost contact with for many years.

Betancourt hopes to travel to Spain and Puerto Rico sometime in the future to continue his pursuit to meet and re-connect with long lost relatives.

Meet Your Board Member Profile: Ag Today,Jun 08
By: John Migliazzo