46 02674 Economy in the U.S.: Agriculture in California Filmkommentar englisch – Seite 4/8
Economy in the U.S.: Agriculture in California
Englischer Filmkommentar
California – Fruit garden of the U.S. (2:00 min)
California.
The metropolitan areas – for example San Francisco – are populated by millions of people.
Fruit, vegetables, grain and meat are found here in abundance.
But where do all these products come from?
Only a few hundred miles away, the landscape resembles that of the Sahara –
This, too, is California –
– the Sunshine State. The sun shines almost constantly here, and it is generally known that in many parts of the South West of the USA, it hardly ever rains.
Yet, almost unbelievably, just a few miles further everything is green and everything grows and thrives.
Approximately 400 different sorts of vegetables, fruit and grain are cultivated in California.
Meat and dairy products are also produced.
No other state in America yields more agricultural crops. California – the fruit belt of the USA – is one of the most productive agricultural regions of the World.
In some regions even two harvests per year are possible.
Approximately 13 percent of the agricultural added value of the entire United States is produced on only three percent of the farmland of the U.S. – How is that possible?
Climate, Water Supply, Irrigation (4:20 min)
None of this would work without water.
Particularly in the South, the annual rainfall measures a mere 75 millimeters.
Vast parts of the area are deserts or steppes.
The reason: High coastal mountains, the California Coast Ranges, form a barrier against the Pacific and block its clouds from the Central Valley.
It is difficult for the clouds to cross the high mountain ranges.
They rain on the coast and disperse before they reach the heartland.
To supply the people, the industry, and above all, the agriculture with enough water, reservoirs were created in the wet and cooler regions in the North.
One of the largest is Lake Oroville.
From here, the water is distributed over almost all of the State.
John Ford, California State Department of Water Resources”
“You’re taking the use of the natural river systems of the Feather River which meets the Sacramento River and the Sacramento Valley delivering the water to the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta – all natural systems. Then it would be from the delta the water is supplied to the north San Francisco Bay Area, south San Francisco Bay Area, down the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, over to the coastal communities San Louis Obispo, Santa Barbara and eventually over the Taháchapi Mountains and into Los Angeles Basin.“
California’s water supply comes not only from reservoirs and rivers, but also from artificially constructed canals.
For example, the “All American Canal” is fed from the Colorado and provides water to the Imperial Valley in South Eastern California.
In the heat of Southern California, crops must be heavily irrigated for agriculture to be possible at all.
Some areas of cultivation are then completely flooded. However, through flood irrigation, a large amount of water is lost to evaporation.
Another method to water these areas is sprinkler irrigation. This requires much less water. Sprinklers are relatively mobile and can be applied flexibly.
The so called center-pivot irrigation is less flexible.
Here the sprinklers are mounted on a wagon, which slowly rotates around an axis or pivot.
A characteristic circular pattern is formed.
An additional technique is drip- or micro-irrigation, which is particularly water-saving.
The plants are supplied with water through a hose.
A special nozzle releases only a few drops. The water loss is accordingly low.
In the past 100 years, the irrigated area in California has doubled. Migrants coming from other regions in the United States have also contributed to a rise in water use. An awareness to conserve water is however widely uncommon. Depending on the time of year and the amount of rainfall, public authorities must regulate water use.
O-Ton John Ford, California State Department of Water Resources
“In California it’s somewhat feast or famine. We seem to go through cycles of wet and dry. And certainly when water is abundant and you’re going through those wet years very few people will conserve water. When you have dry conditions and you start into a drought cycle, then very often communities who rely on imported water, such as water from the state water project, will likely be forced to conserve water because they likely will not do it on their own. And they will generally create conservation through the cost of water and the lack of supply water dictating that higher cost.”
Salinization (1:40 min)
Excessive irrigation in arid areas may however lead to a salting of the soil.
Due to the heat in California, the water contained in the soil does not seep down but rises through capillary action. When it reaches the surface it then evaporates, leaving the salts of the soil behind.
In salty soil, agriculture is virtually impossible.
A countermeasure is to divert the water through drainage after irrigation.
The capillary action is thus avoided and the salts are washed from the soil.
Another possibility is to plant crops with a higher salt tolerance. Alfalfa Grass for example, which is widely used as animal feed.
In the United States, California is one of the chief areas of Alfalfa cultivation.
The grass grows up to one meter and has deep roots.
Therefore it is relatively insensitive not only to the surface salts but also to the heat.
The farmers in the Imperial Valley have specialized, amongst others, in Alfalfa.
The cultivation is relatively simple.
Greg Magania, Farmer:
“Well, we really don’t have a problem here to grow the grass and everything we grow. We have a lot of water, everything. For the material we have here, the weather we have is perfect for it.”
Livestock Farming (3:40 min)
Due to its nutritional value, Alfalfa Grass is widely used to fatten up livestock.
In so called feed lots, up to 100,000 head of cattle are maintained.
That doesn’t go without complication. Due to the large number of cattle, the excrement produced causes a heavy environmental burden. There is also a high risk of epidemics.
The advantage of feed lots is saving time: In the past, a calf would be out in the field, grazing for two years. Today it is fattened up and ready for slaughter in three months.
Another factor for the rapid growth of the calves is the addition of hormones in feed.
When the cattle have reached sufficient weight they are sold.
Either to a slaughterhouse or to interested parties at the “beef auction”.
As with other agricultural products, the prices for live cattle have been subject to considerable fluctuations and have decreased in past years.
In 2008 the prices fell by 25 %.
The consequence is that the business is profitable only to large industrial companies.
Small farmers have almost no chance.
That affects not only the price of meat but also that of milk.
In 2005, 100 kilograms of milk cost 33 dollars.
In 2009, it was eight dollars less – A drop of 25 %.
Even model plants with 5000 dairy cows have to struggle with these prices.
Cal De Jagar, Co-Owner Western Sky Dairy:
“Currently the price is very low. We are operating at a loss, have been, for most of this year. We had more profitability in 2007 and first part of 2008, and then the price started to fall. Particularly beginning this year and the last part of 2008 we’ve been operating at a loss. Pretty much the whole country has been going backwards as far as the dairy industry is concerned.”
The high fixed costs present a problem. To milk 160 cows simultaneously, even with a highly mechanized system, requires a large workforce.
In addition, antiseptics are necessary to treat the cows udders, so they remain healthy.
The milking machines must also be constantly cleaned and maintained.
The feed requirements are enormous.
A lot of water is needed to clean the stables and to cool the cows. Otherwise the heat of California would have negative effects on the milk production.
Another challenge is the disposal of excrement.
Cal De Jagar, Co-Owner Western Sky Dairy:
“There are some new technologies like bio gas projects where they are making electricity from methane and things like that. I think the future looks bright as far as that’s concerned. But handling our waste is probably a big challenge. We do a pretty good job of it now, we use it for fertilizer and for bedding, but there is some room for improvement there, I think.”
Almonds (1:10 min)
Alongside milk and meat production the cultivation of nuts plays the most significant role in Californian agriculture. The production area stretches over hundreds of miles. Nuts as far as the eye can see.
First place in California goes to almonds.
No other state in the world exports more.
The nuts are harvested with a special machine that shakes them from the tree.
On the market they still produce a good profit despite a drop in price.
Here, too, the major problem is water as every farm receives only a certain amount distributed from the township:
Jim Beecher, Co-Owner Farming D & Los Gator Tomatoes:
“Almond trees typically take twice the amount of water every year, than a tomato crop or a cotton crop would demand. If I have a limited amount of water, every acre that I plant into almonds means I have to take two acres of cotton or two acres of tomatoes off of my farm.”
Tomatoes (1:40 min)
Another pillar of Californian agriculture is the cultivation of tomatoes.
95 percent of the industrial tomatoes produced in the United States come from California.
Besides the climatic conditions, the cultivation of new sorts is a factor.
These feature a tougher skin and can be harvested with machines.
Furthermore, due to the large size of the fields, tomato harvesters can be used more easily than in other states.
Through this high degree of automation only few laborers are needed.
They only have to sort out stones and green tomatoes.
To raise the profit from the tomatoes, large farmers are often co-owners of processing plants.
Taken as a whole, every operation is streamlined – from planting, to further processing and onto marketing.
Due to the high profits, tomatoes are real cash crops.
Consequently other crops lose their importance.
Cotton (0:50 min)
Jim Beecher, Co-Owner Farming D & Los Gator Tomatoes:
“The crops that we have traditionally grown that we don’t grow any more are cotton. The cotton markets are very low and the availability of water to irrigate the cotton is restricted. We have a drought in California amongst other things and so we simply don’t have the water to grow a crop that isn’t gonna make us that much money.”
Since the start of the 1980s, the cultivation of cotton has dropped by approximately 60 percent in California.
In the meantime, it has relocated back to the „cotton belt“ in the South and South-eastern United States, to Mississippi and Georgia.
Wine (2:20 min)
A product exported from California all over the World is wine.
Due to the favorable climate, wine can be cultivated everywhere in California.
Specifically known for its wine is the Napa Valley.
Hundreds of wineries can be found here.
Some of them, for example Mondavi, count amongst the best in the world.
With only five percent of the vineyards, the Napa Valley seems to play a small role at first glance.
However, 13 percent of the revenues from Californian wine sales are obtained here.
The wines of the Napa Valley fetch a high price on the market.
Nevertheless, the economic conditions could be better.
O-Ton Keever, Co-Owner Keever Wineyards, Napa Valley:
“I think there are a number of smaller wineries like us that are feeling very challenged by the economic times, and I think others that are in the 5 - to 6000 case range are feeling extremely challenged because that’s a lot of wine to sell in these economic times with the downturn in the restaurant business. I know a number of people who are feeling that these are very difficult circumstances for them to survive.”
Problematic, however, is the sensitivity of the wine to changing weather conditions. In 2007, 146,000 tons of grapes were harvested in the Napa Valley. In the following years, the harvests were 20 percent less, due to weather conditions.
Since white wine brings a lower price, the Napa Valley has been producing predominantly red wines in the last couple of years.
Structural Change in Agriculture (2:30 min)
In the past decades, American agriculture has gone through a dramatic change of structure. The average size of the modern farm has tripled.
Today, large industrial agribusinesses dominate the US market.
Alongside there are still many small farms. This is referred to as a dual structure.
But because the large companies can produce with greater efficiency, agriculture becomes unprofitable for small farmers.