Agriculture of CA and the Pacific Northwest

Since the dawn of civilization, man has always been searching for techniques to have a system of food channeling. Agriculture provided the requisite respite from hunting and gave mankind the necessary support. The United States of America, had agriculture as an integral part of the system and certain states have more affinity towards farming than others.

Agriculture in California and Pacific Northwest has had its share ups and downs and both the regions have seen newer developments in agriculture due to newer laws and advances.

“Agriculture of CA and the Pacific Northwest”

One of the most intriguing occupation, that has not only been age old but also the most satisfying, has been ‘agriculture’.  California’s agriculture has a very unique history to it. The amount of changes that have taken place over a course of 200 years is enormous, and the agricultural industry has gone through a good and bad tenure during this phase.

The changes have been intricate and precise due to a no. of factors.  The alterations in the industry has taken place in the choice of mix of crops; The kind of technology that has been altered from horse driven ploughs to high tech tractors embedded with powerful global positioning satellite guides.;

The directional sources of water has been changed along with changes in ownership arrangement.  The face of the industry has completely been changed due to the growing demands of the urban population.

But there are some factors of the Californian agriculture that remain the same. These core values have been with agriculture field from the start and have never been part of any change in the system.

On a primary level, majority of the farming done in California has always been market eccentric and had never revolved around sustenance of famer’s family which was the basic concept of farming in the pre years of the country.

The Farming community of California has always been adaptive and the entrepreneur mentality has always been an integral part of them.  Californian agriculture has always catered to newer markets demands and has always been part of a unique economic agricultural philosophy. Agriculture in CA has provided opportunities of fulfilling local and international market needs.

From supplying wheat to Europe to vegetable in Asia, California’s agriculture has been a pioneer for varied markets.  Wine production was also fulfilled by California’s agriculture.

Another factor that has been instilled in agriculture in CA is its resource dependency which has been laid out from the olden ages.  The agriculture carried out in California has always been ridden with antagonistic searching of newer lands and water resources.  Lands and water have been exploited before and the case is no different even in the latest times.

This factor has been rampant in the agricultural society of California.  An additional factor that has always been with California’s agriculture is how the absence of water has brought a shape to it. Due to the excess demand of California’s agricultural supplies, it has always been in need of apt water resources.

This is exactly why California’s agriculture has always been an active participant of water wars both on an internal and external front.

Like each industry, the success of production is dependent on the quality of skills and the quantity of labors that one has for effective working of the operation.  California’s agriculture was no different when it came to labor management and problems that were holed up due to the deficiency of requisite manpower.

Due to the varied farming and harvesting techniques in California, the dependency on agricultural labor was a crucial factor in the olden times. Today dependency of agricultural labors is still a crucial part of the Californian agriculture, but with lenient immigration laws, the void has been filled by immigrants from Latin America and Asia.

These immigrant agricultural labors have been actively operating large scale operations on the land and have been instrumental for specialty crop farms. One of the prime decisive factors that have not changed over the course of history is the California’s agriculture’s susceptibility. Farming is one such industry that has always been affected by calamities caused by natural reasons.

Agriculture which is wholly dependent on nature’s mercy gets completely dissuaded when natural fury likes floods or droughts occur. Financial crashes also affect agriculture, and California’s agricultural needs have been greatly disturbed by recessions and economic depressions.  It still is at risk when financial market around the world crash, destroying the scope of increasing market needs.

California’s agriculture always driven by market needs has always opened up opportunities for functioning of large scale operations. Due to the diversity of operations, agriculture in California has always required specialized management to handle the complexity of such operations and also to monitor the success of these operations.

The historic “Gold rush “, was one of the front running elements that embedded the need for higher technical management in California. With passing of time and advancements in technology, the management that overlooks high end technical operations has been critical for effectuating success.

California’s need for higher technologies in agriculture has always been a dominant factor amongst its community. The fact that the entire agriculture has been market oriented, the need to create a niche always existed in the agricultural sector of California.

There have always been heavy investments in better technologies and irrigation equipments, large scale operational technologies, pest control are key examples of such technologies.  California agriculture also ventured into food processing and wine making to gratify the market with high end.

The capitalist philosophy of California’s agricultural community has been a key element in driving the state towards a technology dependent farming and production.

The following will best describe the qualities of a famer, which is best felt by California’s agricultural community:

“The farmer in California, to be successful, must be a skilled agronomist, a careful manager of labor, an astute businessman, a speculator, and certainly an optimist. In recent decades California agriculture has been characterized by a high degree of specialization, seasonality, and reliance (Clarke Chambers. Page 1.1952).