Roots That Run Deep

What does it take to keep a family farm alive on California's Central Coast in 2026? In this episode of Central Coast Pulse, we go behind the numbers to meet the people doing exactly that. Brian Donovan, ARB's Regional Commercial Relationship Manager, talks with Hank Laubacher Jr. of Laubacher Farms in Oxnard, a fourth-generation strawberry farmer navigating rising water costs, shrinking market windows. Heidi Cummings, ARB's First Vice President and Regional Manager, sits down with Daniel Sinton of Sinton & Sons Ranch, a sixth-generation cattle rancher whose family has worked the hills east of San Luis Obispo since 1875. And Ann Hansen, ARB's Vice President and Chief Agricultural Lender, gets the industry-wide view from Paul Clark, Executive Director of the SLO Farm Bureau. Together they paint an honest picture of an industry under pressure, and the deep roots that keep it standing.