Reyna Ortega

Production Manager

Reyna hails from the Districto Federal in Mexico and has farming in her blood.  Her paternal grandfather cultivated corn (maize) and watermelon (sandia) in the fertile grounds of Mexico before her family moved to the capital city.  Reyna immigrated to the United States when she was 14 years old and found herself in the fields picking produce for commercial growers in Oxnard at this young age.  She left commercial growing and joined our small diversified farm four years ago and is instrumental in ensuring responsible stewardship of the land while growing and harvesting our produce for our CSA, retail and school district sales. Reyna is a passionate advocate for farm worker rights and dignity and frequently speaks publicly on the issue, including at the 2014 Social Justice Fund’s Currents of Changeevent.  She won the 2014 Pacific Coast Business Times Latino Business Award in Agriculture and was recently highlighted as a featured farmer in the SEE-AG Grower’s Spotlight (May 2014) and the 2014 Farm to Fork fundraiser event for the Ag Futures Alliance Farm Worker Housing Task Force to promote better housing for Ventura County farm workers. In addition to being a capable production manager for Join the Farm!, she is a mother of four young girls, who benefit from her work to produce carrots and lettuce for their school districts in Oxnard.