The weather in April has proven to be a real roller-coaster ride.

We have had beautiful spring like days, giving way to warm, almost summertime temperatures, only to change to cold winterlike temperatures 7 all within a day of each other.

Last weekend, the cold winds blew in from the ocean, and it was as cold as any day in December. Early-morning temperatures were forecasted to be down into the high 20s for the wind-protected valleys 7 an anxious night for grape growers trying to protect this season/s crop from freezing on the vine.

We look forward to a more temperate month of May.

April is also the month many people celebrate Earth Day. The first Earth Day was celebrated in the United States on April 22, 1970 7 the same year, I believe, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was formed by then-President Nixon.

Earth Day is celebrated annually around the world. Through the combined efforts of the U.S. government, grass-roots organizations and concerned citizens, what started as a day of national environmental recognition has evolved into a worldwide campaign to protect our environment.

I like to think farmers and ranchers celebrate Earth Day every day. We are acutely aware, like our predecessors, that our very livelihood relies on taking care of and respecting the soil, water and animals that make up our farms and ranches.

Whether watching the sun rise in the early hours of the morning or set in the twilight of evening, witnessing firsthand the miracle of a tender young bud emerge from a dormant grapevine and begin to form a cluster of tiny berries that, after pollination, will become this year/s grapes, I am reminded why I was lucky enough to make farming my career.

I remember walking in a grain field as a little boy. The grain had been planted a few weeks before and was emerging from the ground. The grain drill had placed the seeds in neat, narrow rows into the moist soil below.

For the first time, I realized the grain drill did not just scatter the seeds over the top of the ground but planted them in rows. I could clearly see where the tractor turned and the drill followed. Pretty neat, I thought to myself.

Later on, as the grain grew past 6 inches tall, the neatly planted rows all but disappeared.

Speaking of disappearing, I hope you had a chance to read the column by Richard Quandt from the Grower Shipper Vegetable Association of San Luis and Santa Barbara Counties.

Richard/s column was printed in the Santa Maria Times recently and talked about all of the new and upcoming regulations facing agriculture today, many of them not overburdening on their own but, collectively, having the potential to put some agriculturists out of business.

This is a trend found throughout the country, but it/s especially true for operators in California.

We must step up and educate our legislators that agriculture is already addressing both air and water quality issues, along with food safety, without adding any more unnecessary, costly regulations.

If not, farming and ranching in California will, like the grain rows, disappear.

I remember my grandfather Sam went to the University of California as part of the class of 1912. One of his friends there was Earl Warren, who later served as the 20th attorney general of California, the 30th governor of California and the 14th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Also in that same group of friends was a student from Argentina. Sam never told me the student/s name, but he said they became quite good friends and that the friend almost convinced him to go back to Argentina with him and become a partner in his family/s large ranching business.

I do not think Sam ever regretted not moving to Argentina, but it should remind all of us that other countries are poised and ready to ship more and more agricultural goods that are not grown under the same safe and clean conditions that American agriculture provides consumers.

It is great to celebrate Earth Day and all we can do together to make our lifestyles more sustainable. I hope everyone remembered American agriculture as part of that celebration.

Kevin Merrill is a vineyard manager for Mesa Vineyard Management in Santa Maria. He is president of the Central Coast Wine Growers/ Foundation and a member of the Santa

Barbara County Farm Bureau. He can be reached at kmerrill@

mesavineyard.com.

April 27, 2008