And farming in CA is very different than farming in South Dakota or the plains. Costs, labor, etc.
True, but OCCASIONALLY there is a freak frost and ALL the strawberries and/or grapes die. (Price of wine skyrocketed; no farmer took the loss.) It's happened more than once in my life, with crops.
I remember a swarm of millions (Carl Sagan's "BILLIONS AND BILLIONS!!!") of locusts ... oh, that was in Saudi Arabia, not California. :o) Sorry. Getting my bugs and catastrophes mixed up.