Is California's Great Central Valley the Appalachia of the West?
Written by Bruce Goldstein Saturday, 06 February 2010 13:24
The Economist Magazine (Jan. 23, p. 30) contends that "California's agricultural heartland threatens to become a wasteland" due to failure to develop agriculture in a sustainable way, scarce water, failure to diversify the economy and endemic poverty. While the article seems to exaggerate to some degree, it is "one of the poorest regions of the country." The Great Central Valley, 450 miles long includes vast expanses of agricultural lands. Tulare County produces about $3.3 billlion worth of agricultural products per year, second to Fresno County. The 2008 median income for individuals in California was about $61,000, but the median income in Tulare County, a major agricultural-production county, was about $44,000. (USDA ERS data.) Meanwhile, in California, 75% of farmworkers earn less than $15,000 per year and 43% earn less than $10,000 per year (2003-04 data).
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