Sonoma County, our beloved home, and the governing organizational structure within which our even more beloved Valley is encompassed, is an agricultural powerhouse. The climate, soils, topography, human and biological resources, access to water, and location with respect to large population centers of the Bay Area, all play a role in the County’s evolution to this current status.
Western agriculture, in contrast to previous native American horticulture and land management methods, took extreme advantage of this, with the Spanish colonists cultivating orchards, vineyards, row crops and large poultry, dairy and livestock operations. American settlers took this to the next level, with the County becoming a major supplier to Gold Rush San Francisco and beyond. This has continued to the present day, with wine grapes supplanting dairy and livestock as the number one crop in terms of land use and dollar value some decades ago. Diving into the most recent County crop report yields some interesting statistics on what grows here, and how much.
The 2023 Sonoma County Crop Report is an impressive publication put together by the Sonoma County Department of Agriculture. It lists detailed information on the major crops produced in the County, and includes an excellent introduction into “Climate-Smart Agriculture” as an evolution of our local agricultural systems and how Sonoma and Marin County, University Extensions, local nonprofits, and farms and producers are taking a lead in this region. Beyond that, the report goes into the hard numbers for the year 2023, with some fascinating revelations…