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.
As expected, wine grapes are at the top of the leaderboard, bringing in an eye-popping $716,818,600! This is up dramatically from 2013 numbers of around $605 million, over 15-percent growth in a decade. In contrast, milk production has dropped from nearly $90 million to around $58 million, a decrease of 35 percent. This may explain the empty pastures, new vineyards, and for-sale dairy farms we see in the valley and county, essentially losing food production for increased alcohol production. Livestock products also decrease significantly over this period, along with poultry and poultry products – including chickens, ducks, turkeys, and eggs. And this was before the large bird flu die off in late 2023-2024. Apple production also saw a notable decrease, down almost 50 percent in a decade. Sheep and lamb were essentially flat, and that’s not baa-ad!
Vegetable production dropped even further, though the listed drop of nearly 80 percent is either not reliable or does not tell the whole story. A large drop is verified by total listed harvested acreage of vegetables, down to 175 from 2013’s 539. And there is no question of the massive disparity of over 57,000 acres of wine grapes against only 175 acres of vegetable crops. Locally produced food, it seems, is in declining or short supply. Cannabis, another recreational drug, had revenue over $25 million in the 2024 addendum, over 10 times vegetable crop values. Commercial fishing was also down almost 60 percent over this period, perhaps pointing out the degradation of our oceans, rivers and fisheries. Other large differences are found in big jumps in ornamental nursery products, possibly related to drastically rising real estate values, and even cut flowers over this time, both an overall good for small business diversity and general beauty and aesthetics.
In general, the 2023 Sonoma County Crop Report is an impressive compilation of information. But if we are to take the report at face value, and in conjunction with what we see locally, it seems Sonoma County has become drastically less self-sufficient in terms of food production in the past decade. The trend in dairies, poultry, apples and other sectors is alarming, and should be addressed. The wine grape numbers cannot be ignored, and should indeed be celebrated.
The wine sector is a valuable and leading contributor to the local economy and, ideally, would continue to adopt increasingly sustainable methods just as we expect from our organic food producers. And wine grape producers might consider adapting their expertise to open up some of the 60,000-plus vineyard acres to food production. These trends should be studied, discussed, and addressed if we hope to return our Valley and County to the breadbasket they once were – in the golden days of 2013!
(Seth Dolinsky is Lecturer of Sonoma Valley Grange, whose motto is: Healthy Farms, Healthy Food, Healthy Community. He is owner of New Land Systems, a regenerative land management company.)
Thanks for the info Seth. I guess no one was listening when the Surgeon General gave his pronouncement concerning alcohol consumption.