Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the overall value of its farm production. At a value of $31.7 billion in 2005,
California nearly doubled the cash receipts from farm products in Texas
($16.4 billion), the number two state (CDFA 2006, 20, 25).
How did one small valley become the center of vegetable production for
the United States? There are some clues, visible even from the road. The
valley's Mediterranean climate allows for the production of many kinds of
crops that are not viable on the same scale in other areas of the nation.
Large crews of fi eld-workers weed lettuce, pick berries, or cut celery; miles
of irrigation pipes and furrows deliver water to thirsty plants; and an
endless number of refrigerated semitrucks rumble along, carrying produce
destined for salad bowls throughout the United States.
1
Beginning in the
summer of 1997, I, too, drove through the Salinas Valley, but I stopped
and stayed, in order to satisfy my own curiosity with this question. I spent
the next several years exploring an institution that is essential for under-
standing the history and contemporary context of this industry: agricul-
tural science. During my time studying the vegetable industry, I found that
farming in the valley was built on land, water, money, and labor, but the
work of scientists has shaped, mediated, and stabilized the relationships
between these elements. Agricultural science and farm technologies grew
up alongside the farm industry, coproducing each other in very literal
ways. Science, therefore, is a relatively hidden but essential element for
understanding how the vegetable industry—and California's farm industry
more broadly—was created and is maintained on such a broad scale. In
short, although the view changes on the drive from San Francisco to the
Salinas Valley, the landscapes of urban sprawl and pastoral farmland have
more similarities than differences: this valley of vegetables was built, and
scientists did an important part of the building.
2
This topic is about the work of agricultural scientists employed by the
University of California (UC), and I use the case of UC Cooperative Exten-
sion farm advisors in the Salinas Valley to illustrate how scientists and
growers
3
have cooperated—and struggled—over how to solve problems
associated with building the state's farm industry. These farm advisors are
employees of the university but do not work on campus; instead, they
are stationed in counties throughout California, charged with providing
advice and expertise to their local farming communities. When faced with
“crises” as diverse as labor shortages, plagues of insects, and environmental
regulations, experts from the UC have stepped forward to help California's
