FarmHer Lupe Camarena has been involved in Arizona agriculture her entire life. As a child, both of her parents were farm workers. She took an early job at a cotton gin and then with a vegetable grower. After spending a decade as a farm administrator, she returned to school to earn a food science degree, and today she is a Safety Manager for Nature Fresh Farms, an operation comprising 10,000 acres of broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, and melons spread across Arizona and New Mexico.
The demands of her job – balanced with single-motherhood – require a constant shifting of mental gears and multitasking, but Lupe handles every challenge with confident and efficient expertise. Whether it is monitoring fencing that keeps debris from a nearby highway off of crops, assessing the water sanitization systems that irrigation water is free from bacteria, checking on traps that keep rats and other unwanted pests out of the fields, or using her bilingual skills to sort out various issues and challenges between multiple parties on the phone, her focus is always on the enormous responsibility that comes with her role: that of ensuring that America’s food supply is both safe and efficient.
