Week Two: Agricultural Highlights BrochureThe top export markets are fascinating to review. It is amazing to consider how widely California agricultural products travel.
This brochure also suggests the immense amount of government supervision, control, and intervention in California agriculture. As secretary of agriculture AG Kawamura said, if you took just the eight counties of the San Joaquin Valley alone, they would be more productive than any other state in the country. This is a precious resource.
--Brent W.
“Having lived in other areas of our country, I am impressed every time I go to a California grocery store – no matter the season – and see a tremendous variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. We are fortunate indeed”
ReplyDelete(Dr. Robert Leavitt, California Agricultural Highlights 2010, Pg. 127-128)
Well although the reading starts off being about how well protected California’s agriculture is due to the pest border patrols and what not, the reading continues to go on about the wonders of California’s agricultural system and how it produces massive amounts of food and a large Varity of food throughout all seasons. This quote gives someone primary experience of living in California and witnessing first hand how large a selection of fruits and vegetables one has at their fingertips when walking into a simple grocery store (not even the farmers market)
I greatly enjoyed the informational value that the reading as a whole gave to me. It gives multiple statistics on the second page about which products are California’s most grown or produced, it gives crops that are ONLY grown in California and even gives statistics on how California helps feed the global market. In terms of agreeing or disagreeing with the author…It’s hard to do that when someone isn’t exactly stating an opinion but rather quoting statistics from well documented sources for a specific year. However having lived in California I can agree with the large selection of fruits and vegetables that grocery stores offer because I’ve seen it first hand as well. The part I find to be challenging about this article is that…yes California produces a lot and as a result they are a global marketing service…however at what price is California doing this to the environment. I saw firsthand crop dusting while driving through the valley. With all the industrial farms in California there is a great deal of damage being done to the environment so that it can remain in the competition. So where is the line drawn
-Jameson F
"In 2008, the value of California agricultural exports reached an all time high of $12.9 billion...(cdfa)"
ReplyDeleteAfter talking about the CSA's and farmers markets for the last week I think reading something like this puts things in perspective. Small and medium sized farms need to depend on the CSA programs and farmers markets, but with an average farm size of 312 acres farms of that size will have food to ship. The fact that "in 2008 Cali had the largest one year increase in value of exports in the last 13 years"(cdfa) proves that there are benefits to taking advantage of favorable growing conditions and large scale agriculture like increased revenues for the state and agri sectors of public works. California on its own produces these numbers and I think it proves to the nation and the world that Cali has the most diversity agriculturaly. Cali has the most fruits & nuts. The numbers for agriculture in Cali are huge and at first glance they may seem excessive, but having the ability to generate such high revenue as a state is actualy what keeps the agriculture sector and other works alive there.
Michael B
"In 2008, California's agricultural products were shipped to 194 individual countries worldwide" California Agricultural Highlights 2pg. I think it explains the whole reading because you can receive a whole grasp of the numbers just by that one quote alone. I say that because there is only 193-195 countries in the world depending on the source used. So california alone has products that are exported to every country in the world. This was in 2008, i mean no new countries were made that I'm aware of but to be able to say as a state that you serve the world, the whole world its pretty impressive in my book. The overall brochure give you a big picture of what California provides not only to the United Stated but the world as a whole, and in the quantity that they do it in also. It is also a very large specialty producer in the US, it has sole possession of 12 specialty crops that only they produce. I cant really disagree or agree with the reading because its stating facts, but it makes it more believable on how substantial California's agricultural businesses.
ReplyDeleteZach K.