Why is the Central Valley have alot of poverty and why is agriculture the primary industry? (San Diego: houses, unemployment rate)

[FresnoFacts]

Originally Posted by the city

Above posters, you have answered why the geography is good for farming

Isn't that one of the things you asked: "why is agriculture the primary industry?". Besides geography, no one has addressed climate, the railroads selling land to settlers for farming in the late 1800s, and other factors.

Population growth on the coast forced farmers out of other areas: Citrus growers were forced out of Orange County due to subdivisions; dairy farmers were forced out of the Chino area due to growth; the San Jose area used to be the the Prune Capital covered with apricot, cherry, peach and pear orchards. You attended Northridge State, that campus used to be walnuts, oranges, beans and wheat.

All of those crops have moved to the Central Valley due to development. Usually housing in those coastal areas started out as "affordable housing" for those who could not get closer to LA or SF or could not get better jobs in those cities.

The sprawl and development on the coast you say makes areas undesirable is what pushed many farmers inland.

So you are saying you feel that Southern California and Bay Area suburbs are undesirable due to "sprawl" or "traffic"? Yet their residents seem to disagree.

First: I'm sure not all of the San Joaquin places chose to be what they are. In fact, it was the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT that made the choice by creating labor farming camps in the 50s and 60s.

As already stated, federal labor camps grew out of the Dust Bowl and Depression. There were labor camps built all over California. Dorothea Lange's famous migrant pictures such as this one were taken at a Dust Bowl migrant camp in San Luis Obispo County in 1936 (not the SJV).
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/pp...000/03054r.jpg

Second: Sprawl had created affordable housing for workers which drew people who couldnt get good jobs near the coast to San Joaquin Valley. And sprawl creates traffic, smog, and takes away character which leads to an undesirable place.

You mean like the sprawl or traffic in the Bay Area, San Diego and Southern California? Suburbs in those areas were originally considered more affordable housing.

Third: Undocumented workers come here for jobs and the employers don't worry about getting them documented. Paying taxes is important, and not paying them means we are wasting money on giving them services. And coming here with no job is bad too.

Taxes are withheld from payroll checks and employers send that to the state.

The bigger problem is with the underground economy, people working for cash not paying taxes (nearly all at jobs outside of ag). Has your family or friends ever paid someone in cash for some work like painting, a car repair, some yard work, etc?

Taxes from a lot of cash work never get paid, its a big problem that no one talks about. Instead people just wink, wink, nudge, nudge and call it working under the table or getting a deal.

Fourth: To curve unemployment, the government built prisons in the San Joaquin Valley and also one in the Antelope Valley. And also the released inmates return to society usually in the San Joaquin Valley.

So inmates released from the California Mens Colony stay in SLO? Can't be safe for all of those college students.

Or do those released from San Quentin stay in Marin County?

Inmates usually return to where they came from and still have family/friends, they don't stay near the prison.

Fifth: The oil mining places do not get the profit, but instead the money goes to corporations based in wealthy parts of major cities.

Its about the jobs and paychecks. Lowest unemployment states recently have been places like North Dakota which is below 4%, lowest in the US. You might not move there but many are for good paying jobs in oil.
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/25/140784...s-north-dakota

or places with beautiful geography

John Muir described the Central Valley as "The valley of the San Joaquin is the floweriest piece of world I ever walked, one vast level, even flower-bed, a sheet of flowers, a smooth sea ruffled a little by the tree fringing of the river and here and there of smaller cross streams from the mountains."

And also Muir said "At my feet lay the Great Central Valley of California, level and flowery, like a lake of pure sunshine, forty or fifty miles wide, five hundred miles long, one rich furred garden of yellow Compositae."

There is a lot of beauty in the Valley when people take the time to see it.

leads the Central Valley to be very poor.

And yet Bakersfield, Visalia, Fresno, Modesto, Stockton, etc already have Macys stores and San Luis Obispo is still waiting for one.

[.highnlite]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

Good point. People complain about poverty and subsidizing illegal immigrants, and rightly so, IMO. But at the same time, we have to be willing to pay more for our food if we want Americans to do hard farm labor.

I read this frequently, who is going to raise the prices?
Are you suggesting the government step in and control prices and wages?
Are you suggesting the growers form cartels to control prices and wages?
How about the Cesar Chavez Union, United Farm Workers, do we want them to strike and organize like they did in the early 70's?

I have stated this time and time again. Wages in the fields are equivalent to that of Federal Wildfire fighters and Paramedics.

[FresnoFacts]

I realized this morning the logic shown can also be applied this way:

Originally Posted by the city

farming places create poverty.

Grape growing/wine production is farming.
San Luis Obispo County is seeing increasing grape growing/wine production which means more farm jobs.
Therefore San Luis Obispo County is creating poverty and getting poorer.

Originally Posted by .highnlite

Are you suggesting the government step in and control prices and wages?

Nah, didn't you hear. The government is going to force-march city residents and college students into the fields every year for the harvests like the old Soviet Union did. Let them do their Patriotic Duty or Community Service (depending upon their political viewpoint).

Or maybe the secret government plan is to outsource all farming overseas to keep costs down and eliminate those nasty farm jobs here. That would increase lifestyles and economies in farming regions all over the US. We also know that another country would never, never consider holding our food supply hostage and refuse to ship food to the US.

[TimC2462]

FresnoFacts is on a roll.

I would hate to be that guy getting beat by FresnoFact's solid debate skills.

[Shawn_Estrada]

Originally Posted by the city

To summarize the above, farming places create poverty. And a place being a city/town or community.

Where do i begin... Farming doesn't create poverty (and certainly not when you dig just a tad deeper and find out that many of the large farms are corporate owned, or thousand of acres are held by a single family), but rather a system of constantly producing uneducated folks that perpetuate the cycle of low wage earning. The economist had an article a while back that scrapped the surface of the problem, but summed it up very nicely. Farming isn't the root cause of poverty, but rather a lack of a diversified economy is really creating the chaos that is the Central Valley. It is a never ending cycle of low wages, low education standards, and low community investment. This is something that the state or federal government cannot simply throw money at to fix, but rather will take a partnership of investment at the state/federal/non-profit/for profit and residents in general to work in changing the economic landscape of the valley.

Originally Posted by the city

DISCLAIMER: All information posted above belongs to me, and for my information to be redistributed, my consent is needed.

And yet you cite no sources of your work.. tisk tisk.. typical Busch League

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by the city

Above posters, you have answered why the geography is good for farming and why the federal government decided to create labor farming camps out there back in the day. But you MISS out on some big factors as mentioned below:

First: I'm sure not all of the San Joaquin places chose to be what they are. In fact, it was the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT that made the choice by creating labor farming camps in the 50s and 60s.

Second: Sprawl had created affordable housing for workers which drew people who couldnt get good jobs near the coast to San Joaquin Valley. And sprawl creates traffic, smog, and takes away character which leads to an undesirable place.

Third: Undocumented workers come here for jobs and the employers don't worry about getting them documented. Paying taxes is important, and not paying them means we are wasting money on giving them services. And coming here with no job is bad too.

Fourth: To curve unemployment, the government built prisons in the San Joaquin Valley and also one in the Antelope Valley. And also the released inmates return to society usually in the San Joaquin Valley.

Fifth: The oil mining places do not get the profit, but instead the money goes to corporations based in wealthy parts of major cities.

Sixth: The combination of all four above and wealthy desiring to live in cool climates or places with beautiful geography leads the Central Valley to be very poor.

To summarize the above, farming places create poverty. And a place being a city/town or community.

DISCLAIMER: All information posted above belongs to me, and for my information to be redistributed, my consent is needed.

They create poverty under most Americans definition of poverty. It is not poverty for those coming across illegally sending back remittances. Most have left a hell hole and what they have now is quite a step up.

[humboldtrat]

Originally Posted by the city

Why is the Central Valley have a lot of poverty and why is agriculture the primary industry?

Links and resources to sources are appreciated.

If only they had a Macy's, things would be much better!

[.highnlite]

....

Originally Posted by FresnoFacts

I realized this morning the logic shown can also be applied this way:


Grape growing/wine production is farming.
San Luis Obispo County is seeing increasing grape growing/wine production which means more farm jobs.
Therefore San Luis Obispo County is creating poverty and getting poorer.


The poor oppressed wine makers are having to sell their sailboats, and Jaguars and those cute little Mercedez convertible coupes... very sad.



Nah, didn't you hear. The government is going to force-march city residents and college students into the fields every year for the harvests like the old Soviet Union did. Let them do their Patriotic Duty or Community Service (depending upon their political viewpoint).

Just don't pay them a wage, make it piece work.... I do believe that those who really really hate the whole illegal immigrant worker thing, should take a job away from one, get into those fields and bend over, again, piece work, the poor farmer would go broke paying those guys a wage

Or maybe the secret government plan is to outsource all farming overseas to keep costs down and eliminate those nasty farm jobs here. That would increase lifestyles and economies in farming regions all over the US. We also know that another country would never, never consider holding our food supply hostage and refuse to ship food to the US.

We can import our food from Mexico, or China, or heck, Iran, or Iraq, it works for oil!

[BeauCharles]

Incredibly rich agriculture soil and perfect climate for many crops that is irreplaceable anywhere else in the country. That said, heavy agriculture regions are poor by virtue of the low wages and migrant populations. Just the way it is.

[WeakandDizzy]

This is the most bizzare thread. Why is water wet?