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Tag: Agriculture
Paradise Lost: Agriculture, Water, and the Future of the Golden State
When the first forty-niners began to trickle into California in search of gold, the Central Valley was a fertile expanse of grasslands and marshes home to thousands of deer, tule elk, and grizzly bears — an American Serengeti. Within a century, the region radically transformed into a cornucopia of industrial agriculture to feed the state’s […]
Farmworkers: Victims of COVID-19 and Climate Change
Farmworkers are a crucial sector of the labor force who often go without praise. Despite the harsh working conditions, low wages and the increasing threat of climate change, farmworkers are putting their lives even more at risk during the global pandemic. Farmworkers serve an essential purpose in our society as the backbone of our food […]
Against the Grain: What Early States Tell Us About Modern Collapse
An archaeologist stumbles home with some friends after a night at the bar celebrating a recently published study. She fumbles for her keys, but soon realizes she must have dropped them sometime after leaving the bar. She rushes from lamp-post to lamp-post, frantically searching the ground on her hands and knees. Bemused, one of her […]
California’s Other Water Problem
Carolina Garcia and her family live in a vibrant, close-knit community about a mile outside of Sanger, California. She has fresh fruit trees flourishing in her backyard, chickens and sheep frolicking outside her house, and four beautiful children with another on the way. She seems just like you or any other Californian; except for the […]
A Beefed Up Industry
Petaluma, California once boasted the title of Egg Capital of the World, and every spring the residents flock into downtown to celebrate the main event of the year: the Butter and Eggs parade. While I do appreciate tractor processions and cow-pie tossing contests, the festivities were never for me. But being a Sonoma County resident […]
California’s Drought: A Trickling Time Bomb
In early March senior NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory water scientist Jay Famiglietti reported that the state of California has approximately a single year’s supply of water in its reservoirs, with backup groundwater supply having rapidly decrease. His LA Times editorial urges an immediate call to action following its startling announcement. “California has about one year of […]
An Agri-Culture of Settlement
Increasingly serious labor shortages are putting America’s conveniently low food prices at risk. Yet, Obama’s recent executive action on immigration does little to assuage the agricultural labor crisis and could possibly exacerbate the shortage. The shortage problem is challenging the agriculture industry to adapt and may lead to the establishment of a more efficient food […]
Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Farm Bill
The Agriculture Act of 2014, this year’s farm bill, faced a difficult road to passage this time around. After the 2008 farm bill expired at the end of 2012, it suffered a stunted nine-month extension as part of the fiscal cliff deal. Then, after six months of debate and a limited extension, the bill […]