Humanities Homework Help

For this assignment respond to jacob with 250 words . Please provide an assessment of his responses to the following questions . Also please include the same citations and responses listed .

1-How has migrant labor played a role in California agriculture?

Agriculture is prevalent in California, with many farms scaled as much to primarily employ the usage of heavy machinery to maximize production (Selby 362). However, there remain many smaller orchards and farms that depend on manual, human labor. And in California’s case, these workers tend to be migrant workers, whether undocumented workers or recent immigrants (Selby 364). Furthermore, an area such as Cismontane California is known for its specialty crops (Selby 365). Given the kind of production found here, it would be a common assumption that these activities are highly mechanized, however migrant workers are traditionally found working these farms as well (Selby 365).

In specific, the strawberry industry is said to all but fully rely on the cheap labor provided by migrant workers (Selby 374). This work is physically grueling, and workers have historically not been compensated fairly. However, in the 1990s, a union called United Farm Workers attempted to poach all of the strawberry pickers in the Watsonville area (Selby 374). A place which had claimed to be the strawberry capital of the world, going so far as to host annual strawberry festivals in the summer (Selby 374). This has been called one of the largest labor campaigns ever, and it spurred positive outcomes. Granting many of these people better work, and pressuring growers to provide better working conditions on their own farms (Selby 374).

2-Explain the unique site conditions related to California’s dairy industry.

The production scale of California’s dairy industry leads that of the entire country (Selby 378). The state’s massive population, most of which found in concentrated areas, are to blame for this (Selby 363). Over $7.8 billion of dairy products were produced yearly by 2010 (Selby 374).

Despite this, milk cows and dairy land are expensive, and the upkeep of these farms is a lot of work which requires much maintenance (Selby 378). These farms often must be located nearby to the urban markets their product is sold at (Selby 363). This is due to the fact that dairy products are highly perishable, and keeping them fresh during transport is expensive (Selby 363). So even though the rural land surrounding these urban centers tends to be costly, it is essential to locate the farms in these areas to keep transportation distances low (Selby 363). This is why the compact dairy farms known as milk sheds can be found dotted around cities in California (Selby 363). However, existing milk sheds find themselves pushed further back as the urban areas they fall around expand (Selby 363).

3-Explain the factors leading to the success of the California wine industry.

By 2003, wine grape harvests in California surpassed 2.9 million tons (Selby 368). This number would continue to grow as the years went on, reaching 3.6 million tons in 2010, and 5.6 million tons by 2015 (Selby 368). The bulk of this growth is due to the industry’s nurturing of foreign markets by consistently providing high quality wines (Selby 368). During the late eighties and early nineties, California’s international wine exports expanded by 430 percent (Selby 368). Setting a trend that would continue in the coming years, greatly heightening the success of the California wine industry. Leading these overseas markets have been Japan, Britain, Canada, as well as other European countries (Selby 368).

As of 2010, 500,000 acres of wine grapes were claimed as worth nearly $2 billion in California (Selby 368). At the time, wine exports were just surpassing $1 billion, granting the Wine Institute confidence that their goal of reaching $2 billion in exports by 2020 could be reached (Selby 368). By 2015, this goal would be on pace to be achieved, as total wine exports that year were nearly $1.5 billion (Selby 368).

5-What are the problems related to the timber industry in California?

As agribusiness became the unassailable leader of California’s primary industries, the economic and political standing of industries such as that of timber or mining has declined greatly (Selby 361). Despite this diminishing status of the timber industry, it still plays a major role within the state, particularly so among northern California’s forested towns (Selby 361). Which is where most of the timber production within the state takes place, as well as much of the deliberation regarding the state of the industry and its limitations (Selby 394).

The timber industry experienced an economic boom in the 1980s, resulting in the production of over 4.5 billion board feet each year (Selby 394). An amount valued at around $850 million (Selby 394). However, this boom would come at a cost in the future, as the 1990s experienced massive changes to the industry (Selby 395). These involved an overall economic recession, as well as concerns for the environment due to overharvesting (Selby 395). The aftermath of this slump is still felt within the industry today.

Works Cited

Selby, William A. Rediscovering the Golden State: California Geography. 4th ed., Wiley, 2019.