California acreage has doubled within the past two decades, partly in response to a new product, the “baby” carrot which has found recent rapid consumer acceptance, even as a snack food item. Two large, vertically integrated firms located in Kern County dominate the baby carrot industry from the production to the marketing of the ultimate product.English walnuts were once grown mainly in Southern California, but acreage has now almost disappeared, from that area because of higher production costs, increased competition from alternative crops, pest infestations, and rapid urbanization. Central Valley walnut acreage now dominates production because of relative freedom from urban pressure, less costly land and water, and fewer diseases. Once considered a seasonal “holiday” item, walnuts are now in wide demand for usage by bakers, confectioners, ice cream manufacturers, and households. Marketing efforts for both shelled and in-shell products have successfully encouraged year-round walnut consumption. Most of the crop is now sold in shelled form. About a third of the crop is exported.California produces two distinct types of peaches—cling stone canning and freezing peaches and freestone peaches, largely sold fresh. Both were produced on about the same acreage, about 30,000 acres at the start of the 1990s. Clingstone peaches are produced in two areas of the state, in Sutter and Yuba counties in the Sacramento Valley and in Merced and Stanislaus counties in the San Joaquin. Consumer demands have declined for canned fruits in general and low profitability in the canning industry and loss of processing capacity has affected growers,grow strawberry in containers as well. Current acreage is about 28,000 acres after peaking at 31,000 in the mid-1990s.

Freestone peaches are the most popular of the fresh stone fruits , produced primarily in the central San Joaquin Valley . Varieties are available that have expanded seasonal production from late-spring to fall. Rising consumer demands have brought an increase in acreage by a third, to nearly 40,000 acres. Exports of fresh peaches in 2001 amounted to 11 percent of the quantity produced.California agriculture is large, diverse, complex and dynamic. This chapter documents the industry and its relationship to the rest of the economy. It also provides an overview of unifying forces and trends. Our aim is to supply a convenient compilation of facts and figures from a variety of sources, and to help the reader interpret the wide array of data presented.California agriculture is far larger, measured by sales, than that of any other state. California agriculture produces more value than most countries and is larger than, for example, such major agricultural producers as Canada or Australia.In 1997-98, 1,526 registered organic growers in California reported more than $155 million in gross sales on about 68,000 acres. In 2002 they reported more than $263 million in gross sales on about 177,708 acres. Their combined gross sales increased by a factor of 3.5 during the last decade and in 2002 represented 1 percent of the state’s total agricultural sales. Total gross sales in 2002 had more than doubled since 1992-93. Farmers using organic techniques produced over 70 different commodities in 1997-98. Organic agriculture in California is characterized by the predominance of vegetable, fruit and tree-nut crops, which represented about 91 percent of those farms, 74 percent of acreage and 91 percent of gross sales. Livestock accounted for slightly more than 1 percent of organic farms and sales, and data on acres devoted to organic livestock were not available.More than a quarter of California’s landmass is used for agriculture. Just over half of the 27.7 million acres of agricultural land is pasture and range and about 39 percent is cropland. Most California farms are small in terms of area, cash receipts and total sales, and almost all are family owned and operated.

California has a greater share of female farm operators and farmers with Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Islander backgrounds than the United States as a whole. As the state’s population has grown, a share of agricultural land has been converted to residential, industrial and commercial uses, yet agriculture remains a vibrant industry.About 93 percent of California’s 101.5 million acres is in rural uses. This rural area is divided evenly between federal and non-federal ownership. The federal land mostly includes national forests, national parks and wildlife areas, and “other land,” such as marshes, open swamps, and bare rock deserts. Roughly 11 percent of the federal rural land is grassland pasture and range used for agriculture. Of California’s 53 million acres of non-federal land, about 80 percent is grassland pasture and range, forest land, and cropland. About 5.5 million acres of California’s non-federal land are defined by the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture as “developed” for residential, industrial, and commercial use. However, the intensity of use varies widely, with much of this land relatively unpopulated. The California Department of Conservation Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program defines 3.1 million acres of California’s non-federal land as “urban and built-up,” that is, land occupied by structures with a building density of at least one unit to one and one-half acres. This suggests that roughly 2.4 million acres of “developed” land in the NRCS survey are still relatively rural, or not mapped by FMMP. In total, about 27.7 million acres, including 5 million acres of federal grazing land, are used for agriculture in California. More than half is pasture and range, about 39 percent is cropland, and the remainder is divided between woodland and other land.Conversion of agricultural land to urban uses continues to be a public policy issue in the United States and in California. In California between 1988 and 2000, according to the California Department of Conservation Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program , about 549,000 acres were converted to urban and built-up uses. At these conversion rates, about 4.2 million acres would be converted in the next 100 years. Of the total acres converted from 1988-2000, 213,000 were formerly cropland and 100,000 were formerly grazing land.

Another 235,000 acres were formerly “other land,” as classified by the FMMP. A significant portion of the “other land” was idled farmland previously removed from agricultural production in anticipation of development. This indicates that the figures for cropland and grazing land conversion may be understated. Farmland conversion is a topic of particular interest in the Central Valley, which has over half of the state’s agricultural land and 64 percent of the cropland. The Central Valley has had a lower proportion of its cropland and grazing land converted than the rest of the state. The Valley recorded 43 percent of statewide cropland conversion between 1988 and 2000. Similarly, the Central Valley grazing land, about 44 percent of the state total, contributed only 25 percent of the total grazing land Farmland conversion to urban uses is associated with population growth. California’s population increased by about 76 percent between 1970 and 2002, while the Central Valley’s population doubled. There is general agreement that state population growth will continue, but little consensus on precise projections of future growth rates. The Bureau of the Census estimates that the state population will be about 50 million by 2025.Nationwide, over the last half-century,hydroponic nft channel the number of farms and the total land in farms have decreased, while the size of an average farm has increased. This trend has been less pronounced in California. While the average U.S. farm doubled in acreage between 1954 and 2002, the average California farm increased by about 13 percent. The official definition of a “farm” was changed in 1954, 1959, and 1974, to remove many of the smallest “farms” from census statistics. Each of these definitional changes decreased the reported number of farms and increased the average farm size. Since1974 a “farm” has been defined in the Census of Agriculture as a place that generates agricultural sales of at least $1,000 annually. Under the current Census of Agriculture definition, the average acreage of California farms decreased by 30 percent between 1974 and 2002. The 2002 Census introduced a new methodology for estimating total number of farms and operators’ demographics. The Census has been conducted via mail returns, and coverage has been always below 100 percent, especially among very small operations. The 2002 methodology accounts for all farms. In 2002, about 80 percent of California farms were less than 180 acres, yet the “average farm” size was 347 acres. These two statistics highlight the fact that a small percent of large farms account for a large percent of total acreage. These large farms include ranches that graze livestock and may generate relatively little total revenue. By sales value, California agriculture is comprised of a large number of small farms, while a small number of large farms represent most of the sales. The 16 percent of California farms with sales of more than $250,000 in 1997 also represented over 90 percent of total sales value. In 1997, almost 44 percent of California farms sold less than $10,000 of agricultural products.

Retired or part-time farmers operate most of these farms.More than three-quarters of all farms in California are individual or family proprietor ships, and another 15 percent are partnerships. About 7 percent of all California farms are legally organized as corporations. About 85 percent of these are family held. Non-family held corporations produce about 6 percent of total agricultural sales both in the United States and in California.There appears to be a continuing trend toward fewer young people choosing farming as an occupation. Between 1987 and 2002 there were fewer farmers in the younger age categories and an increase in the oldest category. The percent of California farmers over 65 increased from 23 percent to almost 30 percent.Meanwhile, the share of the state population over 65 remained unchanged at about 10.5 percent between 1990 and 2000.Anecdotal information suggests that many family farms remain in the name of the oldest family members, even if they are less actively involved in farming than younger members. This trend may place an upward bias on age estimates since almost all of California’s farms are family owned and operated. In 1997, about 19 percent of U.S. farm operators described themselves as retired.Total pesticide use in California agriculture shows an upward trend, with total reported pounds applied fluctuating from year to year depending on pest problems, weather, and acreage and types of crop planted. Also, the types and forms of the pesticides have changed to meet new pests and environmental demands. In 2000, more than 550,000 pounds of chemicals defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as “reduced risk” were applied by commercial agriculture in California. This was equivalent to about one half of one percent of total pounds of pesticides applied to California crops. In 1990, California became the first state to require reporting of the agricultural use of all pesticides: insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides, fungicides, and sanitizers. In contrast, much of the non-agricultural uses such as chlorine for swimming pools and home and garden pesticides are not reported. About one-third of all California farms did not report using any chemicals or fertilizer in the 1997 Census of Agriculture. California has about 1,526 registered organic farmers, only a tiny portion of those farms that did not report using any chemicals or fertilizer. Therefore, care is needed in interpreting these Census of Agriculture figures. Many farmers may have failed to respond to this particular question or were small livestock growers or other operators whose farms used no chemicals or fertilizer without being defined explicitly as “organic.”California receives about 200 million acre-feet of precipitation in a normal non-drought year. Roughly 65 percent of this is lost to evaporation or vegetation. The remaining 71 maf of average runoff, plus imported water, supplies the state’s water “budget,” traveling through California’s complex water distribution system to environmental, agricultural, and urban uses. Groundwater is an additional important source. In 1998 the California Department of Water Resources released a normalized water budget showing the state’s supply and use of applied water in an “average” non-drought year. Figures in the “average” year budget were based on the distribution infrastructure in place in 1995. The 1.6 maf shortage is largely accounted for by groundwater overdraft that was not included in the budget. More than 70 percent of the average annual runoff occurs north of Sacramento, but about 75 percent of the state’s water demand is south of Sacramento.