Geroge Bonacich has 60 years of agriculture under his belt
By Michael Van Cassell Staff Writer
Hollister – George Bonacich has something besides 60 years of growing apricots to qualify him as the new San Benito County Farm Bureau president.
“He spent a certain amount of time being a referee at college-level football,” said Paul Hain, the outgoing president of the farm bureau.
In addition to growing apricots, Bonacich, 76, spent more than 30 years refereeing football from Pop Warner to college. And Hain believes those years of making decisions on the run have well prepared Bonacich to take the helm of the bureau.
Bonacich began learning agriculture as a 16-year-old, when his father designated him an acre of apricots to tend for an entire year. Bonacich kept the profits of his first harvest, he said.
He continued at the University of California Davis, where he obtained a degree in pomology, or the study of fruit trees. Bonacich also starred as a quarterback of the football team.
After serving for the United States Army in post-war Korea, Bonacich returned to help his father farm prunes in Healdsburg and apricots in Stanislaus County and eventually Hollister.
Bonacich remembers the days of labor-intensive farming in the 1940s. Spraying several acres of an orchard with a one-cylinder, 200-gallon pump would take days, Bonacich said.
“Nowadays everything gets done so quickly,” he said.
In addition to the changes in farming techniques, Bonacich has seen changes to apricot varieties. In fact, he has been active in developing new varieties himself. Bonacich has tested more than 100 varieties of apricots, searching for an alternative to the delicious but delicate Bleinheim variety.
Besides developing a new varieties of apricots, Bonacich hopes to increase the SBC Farm Bureau’s membership and become more active in county politics.
Hain mentioned the possibility of starting an agricultural advisory committee to advise the county on proposed ordinances. Food safety will also be foremost on the minds of Bonacich and other farm bureau officials, said Hain, including assuring the public. Consumer confidence in the spinach crop dropped drastically after an E. coli breakout in September.
