Modesto nut grower re-elected

Modesto-area nut grower Paul Wenger won a second term as president of the California Farm Bureau Federation on Wednesday.

Delegates voted unanimously at the group's annual meeting in Sparks, Nev., to have Wenger serve another two years.

"I can't tell you what a joy it is to do this job," he told the crowd after the vote. "There are no better people than those who work the land. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to continue to go to battle for you."

Wenger, 56, first was elected president in December 2009. He has been a statewide officer since 1997, when he was elected second vice president. He became first vice president in 2005.

He grows walnuts and almonds in the Wood Colony area just west of Modesto, where his family settled in 1910.

The vote keeps Wenger at the forefront of Farm Bureau efforts on water, exports, labor and other matters facing the state's farmers and ranchers.

Continuing as first vice president is Kenny Watkins, who raises beef cattle, alfalfa, tomatoes, walnuts and hay in the Linden area of San Joaquin County.

The newly elected board members include Tony Toso of Hornitos, who will represent Madera, Mariposa and Merced counties.

Wenger is the organization's first president from the Northern San Joaquin Valley since the late Henry Voss, a Ceres grower who led the state Farm Bureau for eight years in the 1980s before becoming California's secretary of food and agriculture.