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Dec 5, 2023 · California’s very productive and profitable agriculture industry relies on two valuable resources: land and water. Both of these resources were taken—by force, coercion, cultural erasure, and enslavement—from Native Californians. Today, water rights and usage are very contentious issues, as droughts worsen across the state.
- THE AUTHORS
- GIANNINI FOUNDATION
- Alan L. Olmstead and Paul W. Rhode
- Induced Innovation, Path Dependency, and Supply-Side Forces
- A Comparative Perspective
- Labor Mobility
- The Domar Model
- The Puzzle of Labor-Intensive Crops in a High-Wage Economy
- An Emphasis on Quality
- Conclusion
- Julie McNamara
Alan L. Olmstead is professor emeritus in the Department of Economics at University of California, Davis. Paul W. Rhode is professor and chair in the Department of Economics at University of Michigan. Contact: Alan Olmstead, alolmstead@ucdavis.edu.
The Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics was founded in 1930 from a grant made by the Bancitaly Corporation to the University of California in tribute to its organizer and past president, Amadeo Peter Giannini of San Francisco. The broad mission of the foundation is to promote and support research and outreach activities in agricultural ec...
In recent years, California has accounted for over one-tenth of the value of the U.S. agricultural output. Perhaps more impressive than the value of farm output is the great diversity of crops, the capital intensity, the high yields, and the special nature of the state’s agricultural institutions. California's agri-culture evolved differently from ...
A hallmark of California agriculture since the wheat era has been its highly mechanized farms. Nineteenth-century observ-ers watched in awe as cumbersome steam tractors and giant combines worked their way across vast felds. In the twentieth century, California farmers led the nation in the adoption of gasoline tractors, mechanical cotton pickers, s...
For all the controversy, however, the state’s farms have remained a magnet attracting large voluntary movements of workers seeking opportunity. Chinese, Japanese, Sikhs, Filipinos, Southern Europeans, Mexicans, Okies, and then Mexicans again have all taken a turn in California’s felds. Each group has its own story, but in the space allotted here we...
In an important sense, the “cheap labor” in California agricul-ture was among the dearest wage labor on the globe. In addi-tion, one of the remarkable features of California agriculture is that the so-called “development” or “sectoral-productivity” gap—the ratio of income per worker in agriculture to income per worker outside agriculture—has been r...
Economic historians often explain the prevalence of the family farm in the northern United States by the workings of the Domar model—if there is free land and crop production technology offers few economies of scale and requires little capital, then anyone can earn as much working for them-selves as for anyone else (Domar, 1970). There will be no f...
Today, California farmers often complain about the high cost of labor relative to what their international competitors must pay. But when the state frst moved into the production of specialty crops, California producers of fruit and nuts faced labor costs that were several times higher than their competi-tors in the Mediterranean Basin. Given these...
For the Pacifc Coast fruit industry, the cost of transportation remained an important factor, shaping production and pro-cessing practices. This is refected in an observation that has entered textbook economics: that the best apples are exported because they can bear the cost of shipping. It also helps explain one of the defning characteristics of ...
This essay should provide a historical context for other chap-ters in this volume.7 Responding to market forces, the state has witnessed numerous transformations in cropping pat-terns, labor sources, and technologies. Among these changes, however, many fundamental characteristics have endured; many of the institutional and structural features found...
Managing Editor University of California, Davis Visit the Giannini Foundation Web site at http://giannini.ucop.edu
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Although family farming was typical in the Midwest, California agriculture was dominated by large-scale industrial farming, and huge numbers of migratory workers were hired and fired each year. A succession of ethnic groups provided this labor, beginning with Native Americans in the 1850s and 1860s, followed by Chinese, Japanese, Hindustanis, Filipinos, and Mexicans.
Agriculture in California. California produces almonds worth $5.3 billion every year. That is 100% of commercial almonds in the United States, 100% of all of North America, and 80% of commercial almonds around the world. Agriculture is a significant sector in California's economy, producing nearly US$ 50 billion in revenue in 2018.
California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom 2600 River Plaza Drive, #220 Sacramento, CA 95833-3377 916-561-5625 info@learnaboutag.org https://learnaboutag.org Non-profit 501(c)3
Figure 1. Distribution of California Cropland Harvested, 1879-1997. Data on shipments of California fresh, dried, and canned fruits and nuts reveal the sector’s spectacular expansion over this ...
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Jan 26, 2021 · Dimensions anD issues. Giannini Foundation Information Series 20-01These essays by leading agricultural economists provi. e an introduction to California agriculture. Each chapter includes basi. data, trends over time, and current issues. The project was supported by the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, which was established with ...
