The California Many Of You Don't Know

I remember when I was a freshman at Stanford.  People I'd meet would ask me the standard opening question: "Where are you from?"  And when I would tell them I had grown up in a small farming community in the Central Valley (or, more properly, the San Joaquin Valley), most of them would look at me as if I'd just told them I grew up in Nepal.

Let's face it: when the large majority of folks think of California, they probably think of the iconic images that are broadcast via the airwaves and in our theaters for most of the past century: Hollywood, with its shimmering movie stars and its puffed-up self-importance; Los Angeles and the whole of Southern California, sprawling and urban, with one of the finest climates in all the world; San Francisco--one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and also one of the most kooky; and Berkeley--the home of Telegraph Avenue, the hippie movement, the anti-war protests of the Sixties.

And this is not to mention many of the huge tourist draws to our state: the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, where some of the best wines in the world are produced; Lake Tahoe, one of the clearest and deepest lakes in the world; the mighty Sierra Nevada mountains and Yosemite National Park (or Sequoia or Kings Canyon further south); the Monterey Peninsula, home of the Monterey Aquarium, the beautiful hamlet of Carmel, and Cannery Row; Palm Springs, made famous by the movie stars of the past who bought second homes there to escape the insanity of L.A.;  and some of the most beautiful coastline in all the world, stretching nearly 900 miles from the Oregon border to Mexico.

But there's another California that even most Californians don't think about much or even know about.  It's California agriculture.  Consider this:

• In 2008, California agriculture accounted for nearly $37 billion in revenue for the state's farmers;
• California is the nation's top agricultural state, and has been for more than fifty years;
• About one-third of California's total land area is covered by farms and ranches (though that figure is shrinking due to the explosive growth of development and land sprawl--more on that in a future post);
• More than 92% of California's farms and ranches are family-owned;
• California produces more than 350 different crops--the most highly-diverse agricultural region in the world;
• California produces more than half the nation's fruits, vegetables, and nuts on just 4% of the arable land.

Okay, so we've established the fact that California has a robust farming industry.  But what this also tells us is that California farmers--in terms of their lifestyles, their values, their goals and dreams and hopes and fears--are not much different from farmers in Kansas or Ohio or Florida.  That usually comes as a big surprise to people in the "Heartland" of America.  Heck, it usually comes as a big surprise to people everywhere.  What is different about California farmers--more than any other state in the country by far--is that they are involved in constant battles with groups representing various interests, all of which are competing for the rich but limited natural resources of this amazing place.  These groups include but are not limited to various environmental groups, developers, state regulators, local municipalities, water rights groups, and on and on.  

I spent nine years living in the greater Atlanta area when I was part of "corporate America".  Agriculture is also a big part of Georgia's economy.  But I can tell you that the farm community in Georgia faces nowhere near the kinds of pressures and influence from state and local governments or special interest groups as those of us in California do.  It's a huge challenge for our industry, and one which, quite frankly, we're losing--in spite of all of the flag-waving and pontificating going on in Sacramento and Washington about the urgent need to "save the family farm".  (That's yet another topic for a future post.)