California Supplies the Nation with Vegetables. You're Welcome, America.

[zappaman]

What would America eat, if it weren't for California? A whole lot of carbs. That's according to an article published yesterday in Slate, which provides some startling numbers about the percentages of America's fruits and vegetables produced here.
According to the article, "99 percent of artichokes, 99 percent of walnuts, 97 percent of kiwis, 97 percent of plums, 95 percent of celery, 95 percent of garlic, 89 percent of cauliflower, 71 percent of spinach, and 69 percent of carrots" are produced in our great state. It also links to an Agricultural Statistical Review housed on the Mother Jones website that appears to be documenting 2009, which states that "The state produces nearly half of U.S.-grown fruits, nuts and vegetables."

The rest of the country produces a lot of corn, soybeans and wheat, as well as livestock (which consumes most of that corn and soy). Even so, California's total agricultural receipts, which totaled $38.4 billion in 2009, are by far the highest in the country and are about double the state with the second highest agriculture revenues (Texas). This is obviously due in part to our massive size compared to many other states, but it's also due to the climate and the role agriculture has played historically because of that climate.

The Slate article seems to be focusing on what America's diet and economy would be like if it lost California, which is kind of an odd premise -- what do they expect, that we're going to fall off the country in a giant earthquake? Secede from the nation and hold everyone hostage with our glorious vegetable wealth? Actually, now that I think about it, not such a bad plan. We also have lots of wine to drink, so it could be quite a party.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2013/07/california_grows_americas_food.php

[justiceischeap]

1. I watched Gasland II last night

and with the fracking taking place on the fault line, I'm concerned about California's ability to supply us with "healthy", edible food in the future.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. No kidding.

nt

[zappaman]

3. I saw that too.

And I agree.
Quite the eye opener!

[Rex]

7. I'll have to look for that.

Sounds interesting.

[zappaman]

9. It's HBO

So it's pretty much on every night!

[Rex]

10. Dam I don't get premium channels.

Maybe I can find it on youtube. I SO want to take a trip to Cali, on my bucket list.

[upaloopa]

4. not too sure how much nutrition it has now

In CA they harvest a crop. scrape the soil. Spread herbicide on it which kills everything. Then spread fertilizers and plant another crop. in a few months it is harvested and the process starts over again.

[justiceischeap]

21. That's why I put "healthy" in quotes.

9 out of 10, they're using GMO crops plus herbicides and pesticides, etc.

[kestrel91316]

26. You are free to not eat our horrible, contaminated produce.

Just means more for the rest of us.

People should be eating locally anyway.

[pinboy3niner]

5. I wouldn't draw up a list of our (CA) demands just yet

Acting rashly may force them to bring out their secret weapon--BACON.

[KamaAina]

6. Other parts of the country could grow more fruits and veggies

if it weren't for agriculture policies that subsidize grain (and indirectly, meat). Campbell's Soup is located in Camden, NJ, for a reason: southern New Jersey pushes out nearly as many veggies per acre as the Central Valley. That's why NJ is the Garden State.

[Arcanetrance]

14. Maybe i'm biased originally being from jersey they're also the best tomatoes in the country

[Gormy Cuss]

40. Everyone I know from NJ claims the best tomatoes and corn are grown there.

Whether that's true or not it's great that NJ still has so much acreage in agriculture and so much pride in its products.

[Arcanetrance]

41. People should have more pride in their local food and businesses

I try to have a strict buy local policy with all things.

[uppityperson]

8. Eat local, use local small farms instead of using fossil fuel to ship food thousands of miles.

[Rex]

12. That's what we do here, the grocery store buys locally

and sales it at a farmers market. Great produce and almost all locally grown.

[reformist2]

11. The San Joaquin Valley is one of the wonders of the world, imo.

When you think of just how much food comes from that little piece of the world's real estate, it's nothing short of amazing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Joaquin_Valley

[displacedtexan]

13. I just moved to SF last Fall from DC.

I was really glad to find fresh organic produce at such low prices here. Back in DC, we were paying twice as much for hard-as-rock produce, designed to be shipped cross country and not ripen normally.

[cali]

15. I'll express my appreciation: I adore artichokes and garlic and walnuts.

[zappaman]

17. Do tell

I just steam them and make a dip using mayonnaise and the best sauce in the world...

[cali]

18. I like them that way and stuffed and with lemon butter or hollandaise or cold with

mayo and tons of lemon juice or cold with a garlicky vinaigrette.

Do you get the idea that I love artichokes? They're my favorite food.

[zappaman]

23. Hard to argue that.

I grew them for a couple of years in the backyard...very easy to do.
I always pick up 2-3 every week at the farmers market.
Would love to know how anyone first figured out how to eat them!

[cali]

27. and lobsters. they don't exactly look edible either

artichokes and lobster. now there's a meal.

[Egalitarian Thug]

43. And you live where good lobsters can be had without a mortgage.

That's the only thing I miss about the north east.

[rhett o rick]

28. I prefer avocados. Plain with mayo or in guacamole. I prefer from California but

major stores like to get produce from Mexico.

[zappaman]

29. Just picked up 3 different kinds yesterday at the farmers market.

Each one tastes different!
But all good!

[rhett o rick]

31. I hope you realize how fortunate you are. nm

[zappaman]

33. I do.

It's amazing.

And now is cherry season, which is pretty great too.

[rhett o rick]

34. I live in Washington and we get good cherries and other fruit. nm

[zappaman]

35. Indeed

Big fan of rainier cherries!

[rhett o rick]

37. Not familiar with Rainer cherries. We get excellent Royal Anns and Bing. nm

[zappaman]

38. Check em out

They have a distinctive color.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainier_cherry

Rainier (pronounced: /reɪˈnɪər/ - ray-near) is a cultivar of cherry. It was developed in 1952 at Washington State University by Harold Fogle, and named after Mount Rainier. It is a cross between the Bing and Van cultivars.[1]

[Sissyk]

16. Thanks California for the garlic!

Not sure I could cook without it.

[lunatica]

19. A UC Berkeley group did some studies of what will happen in California with Climate Change

They said the coast which gets it's weather from the Ocean winds will pretty much keeps what is called "Mediterranean climate" but the story will be very different inland. It'll rain much less there and they predict that the forests will die and cause a massive fire at some point and that it'll end up looking like Southern California brush country. The Central Valley will turn into scrub dessert.

[bunnies]

20. Moar strawberries, please.

We only get CA strawberries out here a few weeks out of the year. And Floridas berries simply dont compare. Sorry, Florida. I absolutely love the fruits grown in CA. Now, cough up the berries dammit!

[Spider Jerusalem]

22. and just about 100% of it is produced thanks to irrigation

which is pretty much doomed in the long term thanks to reservoirs silting up along the Colorado River, salts in the soil thanks to increased salinity of irrigation water, and the depletion of aquifers thanks to relying on groundwater pumping. I'd recommend Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner as a good introduction to the issue (which far too many people are ignorant of).

[KamaAina]

24. Colorado River water is only used in SoCal

and most of the irrigation water used in the San Joaquin Valley comes from Sierra snowmelt runoff, not aquifers.

[Spider Jerusalem]

25. And climate change is reducing that:

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/indicators/snow-ice/snowpack.html

[BainsBane]

45. rice being the most water consuming of all

[KamaAina]

48. Right you are

although rice is grown in the slightly wetter Sacramento Valley, not the San Joaquin Valley, there's still not the amount of water you'd associate with a thirst crop like rice, as there is in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, to say nothing of Southeast Asia.

[MattBaggins]

30. Sounds like you guys don't need to be subsidized anymore

Perhaps other states could fund local farmers with that money.

[opiate69]

32. Meh.. I live in Washington State and rarely buy anything other than local...

Not that I have anything against California or the fine folk there .. just eminently proud of my little corner of the globe too.

[thelordofhell]

36. I'll tell all my buddies in Idaho to stop growing things then.........

[closeupready]

39. "You're welcome, America"? For what, giving it away? LOL

I'll give you thanks when you bring your prices down.

[muriel_volestrangler]

42. Think of all the food miles involved

in shipping basic things like carrots across a continent. Someone on the east coast, start growing things, for goodness' sake.

[BainsBane]

44. We'd eat what's in season

Which I try to do anyway. But yeah, California supplies lots of produce. Because it's shipped across the country it's never as good as locally produce, but we only have that for a few months a year.

[NickB79]

46. Thank you for supporting the factory farm mentality? Uh, no

Oh my God, California supplies us with our vegetables? However did we survive before the great state of California became part of the Union?

Oh, that's right, we supported small-scale local farmers and "truck gardens" that existed in a ring around cities and towns. And we ate seasonally rather than burning massive amounts of gas and oil shipping produce thousands of miles.

The only things that makes California the current vegetable capital of the US are crop subsidies and cheap fossil fuels. Once those disappear (and they will), it's sprawling vegetable factory farms, fed with synthetic chemicals and irrigated with diverted or fossil water, will wither and die out, as they should.

[sbh]

47. I trust you know that CA uses the highest amount of pesticides per acre.

Yeah, we get a lot of food from there, just WASH IT WELL!

[Nevernose]

49. And 95% of weird cults!

Thank you, California, for providing this great nation with the weirdo religious cults needed to fuel our Internet conspiracies, our late night docudramas, our check-out line novel industry, our national desire for drug-fueled free-love orgies! In fact, the greatest shame of American history possibly isn't slavery or needless war or genocide, it's the fact that Joseph Smith got lost on his way to the west coast; clearly it was the promised land for wacky new age religions and Brigham Young was notoriously bad at reading maps. Hyperbole! Never! Over my cold. Dead. Body!

Other things California has given America? 100% of this great nation's Disneylands. Take that, 97% of kiwis farmers! 100% of California license plates, so vital in our television and rap video industries! And 99% of domestic production (professional) of what this country is really all about: porn. Precious, precious pornography.