From the USDA (pdf): Contracted production of California processing tomatoes is forecast at a record high 14.0 million tons, averaging 48.61 tons per acre, according to a survey conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service. The current forecasted production is 17.6 percent above the 2013 crop. Drought has been an issue for some crops, but apparently …
Continue reading ‘Resilience to drought, California tomato crop edition’ »
Via Brett Walton: Continuing a decades-long trend, California farmers will increase their almond acreage next year, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report. An estimated 48,000 acres of new almond orchards will be planted next year, an estimate based on a first-ever survey of nursery sales. The increase is roughly 40 percent higher than the …
Continue reading ‘Drought and those yummy California almonds’ »
Zetland, worth elevating from the comments: Most farmers tend to underplay their flexibility when talking about how much water they “need” but not when allocating the water they have.
From last Sunday’s newspaper, a solutions-oriented piece on an effort to scale up forest and watershed restoration in the mountains around me: Trees being cut last week on Forest Service land near the Sandia Crest Road can be used as firewood, but there is not enough money to be made from cutting the small timber …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I wrote elsewhere: forest health = watershed health’ »
I’m not positive, but I’m reasonably certain the guy with the bedroll in this picture is performing arbitrage. He was sleeping out the midday sun under the San Luis Bridge on the Sonora-Baja-Arizona border before I saw him pick up and head toward those bushes on the Colorado River’s east bank. Just beyond that array …
In 2012 cattle, calves and dairy made up 78.6 percent of New Mexico’s farm receipts. Hay to feed them was the next-largest component of the state’s ag economy at 4.3 percent. Pecans were next at 2.7 percent, and our famous chile made up 1.6 percent of farm receipts. Source: USDA ERS In the background, you …
As you exit the pedestrian gate at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing at Algodones, you find dentistry, a pharmacy and cheap liquor. In other words, the international line created a sharp gradient, over which money from Northside accordingly spilled; and Mexicans came from all over Southside to be nourished by that money. – William T. Vollman, …
NPR’s Dan Charles had a nice piece on California’s drought this week digging down a layer into how farmers are actually responding to California’s drought. They are: Fallowing fields of annual crops like corn to ensure they have enough water for their permanent crops, like almonds. Sarah Woolf takes me on a tour of her …
Continue reading ‘Water is different than other industrial raw materials, but how, and why?’ »
The Desert Sands Motor Hotel on old Route 66 in Albuquerque has all the modern amenities. If you look closely, you’ll see a small television satellite dish.
Rio Rancho, New Mexico, has a dilemma. My colleague Rosalie Rayburn has been writing about the trials and tribulations of the privately owned Chamisa Hills Golf and Country Club, which has had a lot of both. In her latest story, Rosalie describes … a recent request by potential Chamisa Hills buyers Bob Gallagher and Jhett Browne …
Continue reading ‘How much should Rio Rancho charge for this water?’ »