Agriculture, at the moment, is the bright spot in the economy in many US states, one of which is California.
As counties across the Golden State begin releasing annual reports on crop revenues, they show prices earned for many commodities are setting records, and not just by a little.
Across Central California's San Joaquin Valley, the region with the highest farm revenues in the nation, gross crop values showed overall income increases of about 15 percent, a figure tempered as farmers struggle with higher fuel and feed costs.
"The American brand of agriculture is surging in popularity worldwide," said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, adding that net farm income nationwide reached an all-time high of more than $98 billion behind U.S. farm exports totaling $137.4 billion.
International demand for US agricultural products is strong, and and figures from the USDA show that the value of California's agricultural exports grew to $21.1 billion in 2011, up from $18.2 billion in 2010.
Prices reflect a growing demand for almonds in a region that produces 80 percent of the world's supply, and table grapes, which were competed for by both raisin packers and wineries that suffered weather-related shortages in 2011.
"Our agricultural economy is connected to the rest of the planet," said Dan Sumner, an agriculture economist at the University of California-Davis. "Poorer countries around the world are turning into middle-income countries and they want fruits and vegetables, which we do well here."
Even with a 38 percent drop in revenues from avocados, which produce every other year, the value of crops in coastal Ventura County decreased only 1 percent behind strong sales of strawberries, up 15 percent, and raspberries, up 11 percent from 2010.
More than 12 percent of the nation's agricultural output comes from California, and most of that comes from the long and narrow San Joaquin Valley that stretches across the middle of the state. Table grapes, raisins, almonds, pistachios, citrus and canning tomatoes dominate the landscape. And in the specialty crop realm, Stockton produces most the nation's domestic asparagus.
Yet in spite of its agricultural productivity, the valley has a growing hunger and poverty rate. As agriculture revenues have risen, the fortunes of those who work the fields have not. Recent reports show the poverty rate in Fresno County, which produces more than $5.6 billion in agricultural products, is at more than 25 percent, the second highest in the nation.
Four out of the 10 top metropolitan regions with the highest poverty rates are in the areas that last year set records for agriculture income.
"During this recession, and even before this recession, there has been a disconnect between the wealth of agriculture versus the poverty of the people who work in agriculture," said Carolina Farrell, executive director of the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment. "This has been a persistent trend highlighted by this increasing inequality."
