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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: Neoliberalnot

.
Unfortunate that you can’t even keep up with the most basic news.

GMO crops are deadly to the very necessary bacterial culture of soils, just as they are toxic to bees, and many other necessary insects.

Agriculture cannot survive GMO crops.
.


201 posted on 12/25/2016 11:23:51 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: editor-surveyor

Which bacterial genera are you referring to? GMOS have been around for more than 2 decades. Corn, soybeans, and wheat set records for yield in 2014 and 2015. If what you say had a semblance of scientific support such would not be the case. What background in agriculture do you have? Do you have any? What other modern technologies do you abhor?


202 posted on 12/25/2016 11:44:11 AM PST by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed)
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To: Neoliberalnot

Records for yield of non-food, wow!

Read Matthew 24 and figure it all out.

Sorcerers apprentice “science” is killing the planet, and you worship it!

pathetic


203 posted on 12/25/2016 11:49:55 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: central_va

The water does not need to be diverted from the Colorado. Every state above California could easily use 25 to 50 percent more water. That’s why California has been buying water rights in each of these states for years. They could easily mop up the remainder of the water with a sponge if those water rights were invalidated. California is a friggin’ desert without cooperation from the other states.


204 posted on 12/25/2016 12:22:00 PM PST by Steamburg (Other people's money is the only language a politician respects; starve the bastards)
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To: editor-surveyor

Bud, you are in a class with Ted Kaczynski and the Luddites. Why are you using modern electronic technology? Do you believe in cars?


205 posted on 12/26/2016 5:28:00 AM PST by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed)
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To: editor-surveyor

Balderdacious drivel


206 posted on 12/26/2016 5:30:49 AM PST by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... Macroagression melts snowflakes)
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To: EveningStar

It’s not the veggies and fruit exports from California that are objectionable - and they’re likely the contribution of mostly conservatives, it’s the ridiculous leftist politics of envy that make California inspiration stink like the lowliest of backwater sewerage.


207 posted on 12/26/2016 5:35:13 AM PST by Sgt_Schultze (If a border fence isn't effective, why is there a border fence around the White House?)
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To: EveningStar

Fruits, nuts and flakes. The cereal state too.

5.56mm


208 posted on 12/26/2016 5:41:32 AM PST by M Kehoe
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To: EveningStar

Where is Cali going to get the water it needs to grow veggies? Where is Cali going to get the energy it needs to power its’ cities? Where is Cali going to get the money it needs to pay its’ share of the national debt? Including money owned to SS and Medicare. There is Cali going get the military it needs to keep Cali independent? Mexico would love turn its Cali colony into a Mexican state. Think things are bad now Cali with Trump? Just wait until you pay taxes and take orders from Mexico City.

I can just about guarantee all your hard working productive citizens will flee Cali should Cali decide to go indy. And we here in the USA will not watch your sick movies any longer nor listen to your sick celebs any longer.


209 posted on 12/26/2016 6:16:14 AM PST by jpsb (Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied. Otto von Bismark)
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To: Bryanw92

Where is a reason New Jersey is named the Garden State.

Veggies are grown in Cali because it is cheaper to grow them there. Cali gets LOTS of free water from the other western States. Take that free water away and Cali will not grow squat. South Cali will revert back to the desert it really is.


210 posted on 12/26/2016 6:21:23 AM PST by jpsb (Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied. Otto von Bismark)
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To: Ditter

I am growing cauliflower in my garden right now, broccoli too. And I have peach, orange, grateful and plum trees. East Texas could grow a lot of food if east Texas wanted too.


211 posted on 12/26/2016 6:31:46 AM PST by jpsb (Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied. Otto von Bismark)
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To: jpsb

So they are winter crops in Texas, good to know. Our most successful trees down near the coast are Pecan trees. We have native truffles growing in the roots of native pecans so we planted Pecan trees who with their roots are infused with Truffles. They are still young so we haven’t gotten any yet.


212 posted on 12/26/2016 6:50:18 AM PST by Ditter (God Bless Texas!)
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To: Ditter

I think it takes a while to get Pecans from a Pecan tree. You can get good production from the trees I mentioned in 3 years. Had someone not helped themselves to my 4yo Orange trees oranges I’d had enough to last all winter.

I like the winter garden best, the heat in the summer here wilts just about everything except okra.


213 posted on 12/26/2016 7:00:43 AM PST by jpsb (Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied. Otto von Bismark)
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To: jpsb

We have hundreds of mature Pecan trees planted years ago. Several years ago we had such a Pecan crop we had to hire a company to harvest them for us. The reason for the new ones planted 3 years ago were the Truffles. That was just an experiment., no answers yet.


214 posted on 12/26/2016 7:08:15 AM PST by Ditter (God Bless Texas!)
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