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The C-Free Diet: If we didn't have California, what would we eat?
Slate ^ | July 10, 2013 | Brian Palmer

Posted on 12/24/2016 12:15:54 PM PST by EveningStar

Food scientists at Cornell University have produced a strain of broccoli that thrives in hot environments, which may make it possible for states with stiflingly hot summers to grow the vegetable. California, where cool coastal fog is perfect for growing standard broccoli, currently produces more than 90 percent of the broccoli grown in the United States. If California were to disappear, what would the American diet be like?

Expensive and grainy. California produces a sizable majority of many American fruits, vegetables, and nuts: 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 (and the list goes on and on). Some of this is due to climate and soil. No other state, or even a combination of states, can match California's output per acre. Lemon yields in California, for example, are more than 50 percent higher than in Arizona. California spinach yield per acre is 60 percent higher than the national average. Without California, supply of all these products in the United States and abroad would dip, and in the first few years, a few might be nearly impossible to find. Orchard-based products in particular, such as nuts and some fruits, would take many years to spring back.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: California
KEYWORDS: agriculture; artichokes; broccoli; california; carrots; cauliflower; celery; diet; food; foodsupply; fruits; garlic; kiwis; lemons; moronicidea; nuts; plums; slate; spinach; stupidpeople; vegetables; walnuts
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To: bannie
California’s fruits and nuts were donated to us by all of the other states. Until the 60’s we were fine.

True, so true. I'm a native San Franciscan, born and raised here. Until mid-1960s we had a long unbroken string of Republican mayors first half of the 20th century. Yes, San Francisco was Republican. Then we got a hippie influx from the northeast USA and elsewhere outside of California - bye-bye paradise. You all can have your fruits and nuts back now.

181 posted on 12/24/2016 9:18:23 PM PST by roadcat
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To: Oberon

The democrats have deliberately cut the water supply to the central valley in order to impoverish the area and make the conservative area dependent on welfare from the democrats. They also have insiders buying up the now low cost properties that will be flipped for big money once the $120 billion cost and counting train to nowhere is built and the land becomes more valuable. Think Chinatown.


182 posted on 12/24/2016 9:52:55 PM PST by minnesota_bound
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To: roadcat

If only they’d take ‘em back! They’ve sure messed up a great state. :(


183 posted on 12/24/2016 10:01:33 PM PST by bannie
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To: minnesota_bound

Oh, dear! The TRAAAAAIN!!! The one we’ve tried and tried to vote down—but we’re ignored! We have NO money, so they earmark every penny for that disaster! There are sure a lot of politicians getting WEALTHY off of that fiasco!


184 posted on 12/24/2016 10:03:43 PM PST by bannie
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To: bannie
If only they’d take ‘em back! They’ve sure messed up a great state. :(

For sure. For instance, Nancy Pelosi. She came from Baltimore, propped up by Democrat relatives (like her brother, mayor of Baltimore) who got her introduced to the Burton brothers (big-shot Congressmen) who were friends of her brother. I lived in the same neighborhood as John Burton, and visited his offices in the 1960s. These guys had an agenda to turn the city left. Pelosi and others from the northeast flooded in and turned SF democrat. Others came, like Willie Brown from Texas, gerrymandered voting districts to turn them democrat. I've been in the Mayor's office when he was mayor and seen him up close. Snakes, most of them. From elsewhere.

185 posted on 12/24/2016 10:18:28 PM PST by roadcat
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To: EveningStar

Gosh, what did the world do before California?????


186 posted on 12/25/2016 3:51:21 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: Rebelbase

The ‘gardens’ were actually truck farms - a family with several acres or more growing veg & fruit taking their produce to market in the family truck. The soil is a rich loam now buried under and paved over for gigantic corporate HQs, track housing, sub-developments, parking lots, and shopping centers for the most part.


187 posted on 12/25/2016 4:19:17 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: EveningStar
If California were to disappear

Where is it going?

If an earthquake broke the west coast off that would just put the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys on the coast.

188 posted on 12/25/2016 7:51:41 AM PST by hattend (Firearms and ammunition...the only growing industries under the Obama regime.)
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To: EveningStar

If we didn’t have ___________, what would we drive?
If we didn’t have ___________, what would we burn in power plants?
If we didn’t have ___________, what would we replace ________ with?
Precious Cali, special Cali, all hail Cali...


189 posted on 12/25/2016 8:37:24 AM PST by polymuser (There's a big basket of deportables.)
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To: hattend

Glorious! (Shame on me!)


190 posted on 12/25/2016 8:48:46 AM PST by bannie
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To: bannie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov-lHQyC9pk


191 posted on 12/25/2016 8:53:39 AM PST by hattend (Firearms and ammunition...the only growing industries under the Obama regime.)
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To: Oberon

When I was young, my family grew a year’s supply of vegetables every year on, in total, about an acre.

***************

How you reckon them people in the East survived before they had transports for all them
CA grown veggies/fruits/nuts? Somehow they managed to survive. Hell I remember about a 1/2 acre
plot, growing, picking, canning/perserving and we didn’t starve.


192 posted on 12/25/2016 9:16:52 AM PST by deport
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To: Neoliberalnot; VanShuyten

.
>> “...the best test soil in the world” <<

That title goes to the Salinas valley, and in particular to the delta of the Salinas River at Castroville.

(The artichoke capital of the world)


193 posted on 12/25/2016 10:27:23 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: VanShuyten

.
The value of the midwest lands has been reduced to almost nothing by the production of GMO corn that has decimated important bacteria in the soil.

GMO is death to agriculture. It has also damaged a large portion of the upper San Joaquin valley.

Very likely what Yeshua was alluding to when he said “unless those days be shortened, there should be no flesh saved.”
.


194 posted on 12/25/2016 10:34:18 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: editor-surveyor

So, I can see now that you are no expert in modern agriculture, especially in light of your ridiculous statement about genetic modification, a technique used for centuries. Tell me about your connection to Agriculture if I am wrong.


195 posted on 12/25/2016 10:42:10 AM PST by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed)
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To: Neoliberalnot

.
Moron!

Gene splicing has not been used for centuries.

You blurt out foolishness due to your absolute lack of understanding of the issue.

Variation by pollination is the natural process. It is incapable of doing harm.

Gene splicing, on the other hand, is incapable of resulting in good.
.


196 posted on 12/25/2016 10:47:04 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: EveningStar

Gosh, whatever did we do back in the day before airplanes and refrigerated trucks, like, say, the 50s? Our grannies and moms shopped every couple of days. Produce was local and not loaded with additives. You ate what was in season, so that every season had its flavors and you looked forward to them, not the boredom of surfeit that we have today, and not much junk, either. Our family had ice cream and/or Coca Cola only a few times a year, chiefly in the summer. Day to day, moms made a piece of meat and some potatoes and vegetables one night, and a casserole of leftovers the next night. People were slender, with small waists. You rarely see a photo from the 50s or 60s of overweight Americans of any race.


197 posted on 12/25/2016 10:49:19 AM PST by Albion Wilde ("Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo."--Donald Trump)
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To: editor-surveyor

So, tell us how natural is better. You are no scientist nor do you have expertise in modern agriculture or toxicology. So stop pretending and try to keep the name calling on some adult level. You are already in over your head.


198 posted on 12/25/2016 10:52:52 AM PST by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed)
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To: Neoliberalnot

.
Actually, I took 5 units of Toxicology, from the best.
.


199 posted on 12/25/2016 10:57:41 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: editor-surveyor

So, that is the basis of your expertise in modern agriculture, genetics, and toxicology? So, how are GMOs toxic? You never answered why natural is superior to man made? I’m curious why you think that.


200 posted on 12/25/2016 11:08:03 AM PST by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed)
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