Farmers in San Francisco? And, NYC?

As I mentioned in my blog yesterday, one of the great advantages that I see in CA agriculture is its wonderful diversity of crops that are grown on its farms. Driving down the road for an hour you can see dozens of different crops, both annuals and perennials. This diversity has helped to elevate CA into the top spot in American agriculture.

Another advantage that CA has, in my opinion, is that it also receives one of the lowest amounts of subsidies as a percentage of its production when compared to the other 49 states in the USA. CA farmers are producing for the market, not because of what Washington incentivates with its Farm Bill. I’ve seen how eliminating subsidies can stimulate an agricultural economy in New Zealand and wish that we would give it a try in the USA.

The maps of SF and NYC that are on this page show the number of “farmers” that received agricultural subsidies from 2003 to 2005. The larger dots received hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money for the farming that they were doing.

I guess that I’ve just not gotten to the right spots in either city to see the farms that are located there!