SACRAMENTO – The California State Fair is the one constant setting for celebrating and showcasing the best of California.

This year, during the 50th Anniversary of the California State Fair at Cal Expo, the Fair will showcase its agricultural roots by celebrating the contributions of California’s farm workers and their historic leaders.

More than 400,000 farm workers bring their skills and hard work to help bring food from our state’s abundant fields to the tables in our homes.

The contributions of these groups or individuals who help cultivate the food that feeds our state, country and world, sustain what is today a $47 billion agriculture industry.

The dedication ceremony of “The Best of California…Celebrating Farm Workers’ Rich Contributions to Food and Agriculture” takes place Sunday, July 16, at 5 p.m.

The exhibit is prominently placed in California Building A. The exhibit features the stories of pioneers who founded the United Farm Workers of America: Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and Filipino union leader Larry Itliong. During the 1965-1970 Delano grape strike, Latino and Filipino workers shared the same picket lines, union hall and strike kitchen, making it a true multi-racial struggle.

The farm workers’ exhibit takes fairgoers on a journey with photographs, a video, and artifacts including clothing worn by Cesar Chavez, old buttons, flags and an original short-handled hoe outlawed by the state of California in 1975.

Included in the video are interviews with Cesar Chavez Foundation President and son of Cesar Chavez, Paul F. Chavez, UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez, co-founder of the UFW Dolores Huerta, California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher, California Secretary of Food and Agriculture Karen Ross, California State Assemblyman, Rob Bonta, and former farm worker organizer Cynthia Bonta.

The exhibit highlights the struggles of the early leaders and spotlights the progress farm workers are making today through union contracts that improve pay and benefits, to recent laws and regulations that protect all farm workers, including the great majority employed at non-union farms.

They include a law gradually phasing in overtime pay for farm workers after an eight-hour workday that was passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016, and first-in-the-nation standards to prevent deaths and illnesses from extreme heat.

Attending the official dedication of the farm workers’ exhibit will be leaders and members of the UFW, the Cesar Chavez Foundation and family, state constitutional officers, members of the state Legislature, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, Sacramento City Council and California State Fair Board Members.

“As blessed as California is, our valuable food supply does not exist without the daily contributions of more than 400,000 talented farm workers. Since 1854 the California State Fair, has been a champion of agriculture education and is a recognized leader in farm-to-fork movement. We are honored to develop and present this one-of-a-kind celebration exhibit”, said Rick Pickering, CEO of the California State Fair.

The California State Fair takes place at Cal Expo July 14 to 30.

Established in 1854, the California State Fair is dedicated as a place to celebrate California's achievements, industries, agriculture, and diversity of its people, traditions and trends that shape the Golden State's future.