Posted on 02/02/2006 5:27:59 PM PST by Amerigomag
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California, the nation's leading farm state, lost 500 farms in 2005 as agriculture continued to consolidate to bigger operations and urban development consumed more land, says a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
While California's closures represented less than 1 percent of the state's remaining 76,500 farms, the number of farms in the state has fallen for seven straight years _ a loss of 10,500 farms _ reported the USDA.
California state conservation officials estimate urban growth alone covers 50,000 irrigated acres of farmland yearly. Last year, state farm acreage dropped by 300,000 acres. Nationally, California's farm losses represented 4.2 percent of 11,980 farms that closed in 2005, according to the USDA. The nation has 2.1 million farms on nearly 1 billion acres of land.
In California, where farmers produced $31.8 billion in goods on about 26.7 million acres in 2004, the average farm size was 345 acres last year, federal statistics indicated.
The consolidation trend is easy to see when revenue figures are broken down. For instance, the number of farms reporting sales over $500,000 rose to 8,500 in 2005 _ an increase of 200 farms. Similarly, farming operations reporting sales of $250,000 to $500,000 jumped to 4,300 last year. That was an increase of 100 farms.
North Carolina lost 2,000 farms in 2005, the most of any state. Others states with losses of 500 farms or more included Washington, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. Texas gained 1,000 new farms.
(Excerpt) Read more at shns.com ...
Damn, pot is going to get real expensive...
As long as we don't become dependent on Mexico and South America for our food......
Urban development is the #1 killer of Calif. followed by immigration. CA Pols think more land development solves all their problems.
ping
Great! Agriculture is becoming more efficient.
Food is overrated.
Would be interested to see how many of those grew tobacco 10 years ago.
CA can't build housing tracts fast enough and each group of housing tracts all need strip malls, etc. Where I live, farmland is being eaten up at an alarming rate. I guess as long as we have all these supermarkets, we really don't need farms.
It's OK, I found them. They were under the couch.
Well we could always give illegal aliens large pieces of land so that they can "do the farming that Americans won't do".
Urban development is almost exclusively driven by illegal immigration in California. The middle class escapes traditional suburban areas as the consequence of illegal immigration degrades the fabric of their neighborhoods. The process is readily observable. Cars start in the garage, then move to the driveway, then to the street and finally onto the lawn.
Those who escape from the seed of the new, urban, cultural ghetto flee to suburban areas developed from previously productive, agricultural zones on the fringe of those suburban areas. Their old houses, in the incipient ghetto, are turned into rentals. The rentals are quickly consumed by the consequences of illegal immigration. The cycle moves on and the old neighborhood descends into the third world as the new home sits on part of a peach orchard that was productive just four months ago.
California's killer is illegal immigration. All things from it's financial crisis, school overcrowding, poor public school performances, prison overcrowding, clogged transportation system and the rise of the "you owe me" class is all a consequence of illegal immigration.
California is being inundated with foreign nationals. They've got to go somewhere. California is a hugh resource nationally when it comes to farm produce. Destroying it's farm capabilities is a big mistake IMO.
"As long as we don't become dependent on Mexico and South America for our food......"
Mexico and Venezuela are net food importers, not the US--a net food exporter.
Most of the farm land in California is in the Central Valley. Do you guys know how big this valley is? Try 450 miles.
Driving from Sacramento down Hwy 5 you have one large city (Stockton) before you reach the turn off to the San Francisco bay area. If you were to continue driving south, you would need to drive to the end of the valley and over the grapevine to reach another large city. About six hours (of some of the most boring driving you will ever do). Except for farms and a few small cities there is nothing on Hwy 5 for hundreds of miles. Did I mention, except for farms.
If you decided to drive down Hwy 99 (Hwy 5 and 99 meet at both ends of the valley but for the most part they run parallel about 20 miles apart. Most of the land between the two roads is farm land.
Driving 99 south from Sacramento you hit a large city about every hour, Stockton, Modesto, Merced, Fresno and then Bakersfield. Everything between the cities is farm land.
The Central Valley is 450 miles long, and most of it is farm land. I don’t think we will be running out of land any time soon.
And ...
California is being inundated by the consequences of illegal immigration. Today their members include the Assembly Majority Leader - Fabien Nunez, The Lt. Governor - Cruz Bustamante, the mayor of Los Angeles - Tony Villar, the senior Democrat Senator - Gill Cedillo and the recently appointed Secretary for State and Consumer Services - Rosario Marin.
My thoughts exactly.
Yep, and Villagarosa is joined at the hip with Ramon Ripston, ACLU Southern California President. Course that's not as bad as being prowd of his affiliation with Mechla. Bustamante and some of the others are as well.
Just wait. They'll find out the Dems were only hiding them
to make Arnold look bad.
Save the family farms. One of the last honorable occupations. Insurance, usery, government cheese and advertising will be the death of us all.
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