Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
was so new, however, advisors often found it diffi cult to provide expertise
to vegetable growers and tended to focus instead on problems associated
with grain and livestock production. Although research was conducted on
issues related to vegetable production, Cooperative Extension specialists
and faculty from the UC campuses were more likely to take the lead on
those problems. Locally, the advisors were given commodity assignments
that matched the distribution of the county's crop acreage but not the
dollar value of the crop produced on this acreage. For instance, as late as
1954, the structure of agricultural extension work in Monterey County
included a county extension director (Tavernetti), a livestock advisor, a
fi eld crops advisor, and a fruit and vegetable crops advisor. 7 This division
of labor refl ected the acreage generally used for these crops and livestock
in the county at the time: approximately 130,000 acres of grain and fi eld
crop production, 100,000 acres of vegetable and fruit production, and over
1 million acres of pasture land for cattle and sheep. 8 The dollar value pro-
duced by these crops and livestock was distributed quite differently: about
$10 million each for fi eld crops and livestock and $73 million for vegeta-
bles and fruit (Tavernetti 1954, 2).
As a consequence, one farm advisor was assigned to work with all the
vegetable and fruit growers, yet the fi nancial and organizational resources
available to these growers dwarfed those of growers of all other commodi-
ties. This advisor struggled to accommodate the research and educational
needs of this industry, especially given that many vegetable and fruit
growers were themselves quite knowledgeable about the special techniques
and diffi culties associated with large-scale production of niche market
industry crops. In an interview with this advisor, now retired, he described
to me the troubles he faced after his appointment to Monterey County in
1950:
Retired Advisor: When I came here . . . I was pretty much responsible for
all the work done on the vegetable and the small fruits and [laughs] even
the poultry. We had a 4-H man. We had a fi eld crops man. And we had a
livestock man. And that was pretty much it. . . . That didn't work out. And
having such an extremely broad responsibility here—[with me] the only
one really doing any signifi cant work or having any signifi cant responsi-
bilities, in such a broad-based industry . . . as the veg[etable] crops industry
and the small fruit industry—all I can tell is I was pretty much a total
failure for quite awhile.
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