[Magdalen] California drought

[Charles Wohlers]

No, the Salinas Valley is not an ag monoculture. However, as you said, most 
of the lettuce (& spinach) grown in the US is grown in the Salinas Valley. 
Growing all this in a relatively small area promotes the establishment and 
spread of diseases - so you do have a monoculture in that sense. Currently 
there are 31 races of downy mildew fungus (a serious disease of lettuce & 
spinach), most of which originated in the Salinas Valley, because lettuce & 
spinach production is so concentrated there. Much better and much more 
healthy ecologically would be to disperse the production to other places. Of 
course, the downside is that this would raise costs, and cost has always 
been the most important factor in agriculture. Always trade-offs.

Chad Wohlers
who grows his own lettuce & spinach in
Woodbury, VT USA
chadwohl at satucket.com



-----Original Message----- 
From: M J [Mike] Logsdon
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2014 9:11 AM
To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
Subject: Re: [Magdalen] California drought

>>>I think the rant was against the monoculture specifically.  If you
concentrate the growing of anything in one area, be it plants, birds or
animals, you are creating the conditions for disease to flourish.
Certainly California needs some flora to stabilise the soil but
preferably something that does not suck the soil dry while producing a
marketable crop.<<<

I know, and we don't.  I have no idea how this thread got so wrong-headed so 
fast.  We're not an ag monoculture.  Wikipedia is your friend.