Agriculture puts the 'giving' in Thanksgiving

As we ease toward Thanksgiving week, when aromas from the kitchen become ever more fetching, we should all stop for a moment and consider what agriculture means to us.

Farming and ranching might appear to be on the run, in the face of expanding urban boundaries and fields sprouting houses where broccoli and strawberries used to be. And it is true that parts of the Santa Maria Valley are being converted from agriculture to homes and shopping centers with almost lightning speed.

But agriculture remains a very key part of our everyday lives. Not only does farming put food on our tables, it also puts money in our pockets.

Last year, as in most years in memory, agriculture was Santa Barbara County's No.1 producing industry, with crops and livestock providing a gross value of more than $775 million, $65.9 million more than the previous year. Perhaps even more telling is that 2002's crop total was about a quarter of a billion dollars greater than the county's yield of just a decade ago.

When using the multiplier effect to determine an industry's true impact on a region, agriculture means more than $1.5 billion dollars, not trickling but flooding into the county's communities.

And Santa Barbara County is just the tip of the iceberg in California. The state's farms grow more than half of America's fruits, vegetables and nuts from just 3 percent of the in-use farmland. The value of California's top 10 commodities was more than $16 billion last year. California farms cover approximately one-third of the state's total land area. In 2000, California produced 15.5 million tons of fruit and nuts. California accounts for more than 90 percent of all U.S. wine production and vineyard acreage, an increasing percentage of which is produced right here in Santa Barbara County.

This county ranked 13th statewide in 2002 in crop production. The county's top five crops are strawberries ($115.8 million), broccoli ($99.6 million), wine grapes ($72.4 million), head lettuce ($48.3 million) and cauliflower ($45.3 million).

These crops can be grown here because we have a Mediterranean climate, good soil and - most importantly - the will to play an important role as one of the nation's leading suppliers of food and wine.

Santa Barbara County's ag community is more than food, cows and flowers. It is a collection of hard-working people who toil in a high-risk business that is more subject to the whims of Mother Nature than just about other. They go about their business every day, rain or shine, with or without headaches or sore throats.

And that business is conducted, for the most part, with the full cooperation of county and city governments, whose leaders understand and appreciate the value of agriculture. That coalition is being honored beginning today, with the start of National Farm-City Week, an annual event proclaimed by the president of the United States to emphasize the partnership between growers and ranchers and their urban neighbors.

Farmers and ranchers do not work alone. They are part of a complicated and intricate human network that helps get food on the tables of Americans from coast to coast. Think of it as a new way of looking at the food chain.

So, as you gather your family together next Thursday for the Thanksgiving feast, pause for a moment and consider the source of the bounty on your table. Raise a glass to the farmers and ranchers who help make this celebration possible.

Nov. 21, 2003