From farm to table, how Fresno County’s top crops have changed over the past 50 years
This week’s celebration of Thanksgiving serves as a reminder of the agricultural bounty produced in Fresno County. Just about everything on the stereotypical Thanksgiving table – from the turkey to the pumpkin pie – and much more is represented among the crops or commodities that are grown or raised here.
Fresno County is not just the top agriculture-producing county in California in most years, it’s also a national leader. In 2020, the total value of crops and livestock produced in the county was almost $8 billion, surpassing the county’s previous record crop and commodity value of about $7.8 billion in 2018.
Over the past 50 years, however, the agricultural landscape of Fresno County has undergone changes.
Crops like grapes – whether for raisins, wine or eating fresh – tomatoes, oranges and peaches have always been among the top-value commodities reported each year by the Fresno County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office.
Others that once dominated the county’s farming acreage and ranked among the highest-value crops, however, no longer hold their places of honor: crops such as cotton, barley or alfalfa for hay, for example.
Still others have climbed from places of relative obscurity in the 1970s into the forefront, both in terms of the acreage harvested and in the annual crop value. Those include almonds, pistachios and garlic – the latter two weren’t even included separately in crop reports until the mid- to late 1970s because their acreage and value were negligible compared to others.
Consider the humble almond, for instance. In 1970, almond growers harvested a mere 6,400 acres of nuts, and the total crop value was just a little over $4.1 million.
In the 2020 crop report, almonds were the most abundant crop in the county, with 274,673 acres harvested – almost 42 times as many acres as 50 years earlier. And for the ninth straight year, almonds were Fresno County’s most valuable crop, too, representing more than $1.2 billion – a whopping 300 times the little nut’s value in 1970.
Beef and dairy cattle, poultry and dairy products, while longtime staples of the county’s agricultural economy, are based on numbers of critters rather than acreage and not included in this analysis.
How patterns have changed
Here are examples of the changes that have occurred in acreages and values for leading crops in Fresno County since 1970:
Almonds – 2020: 274,673 acres, crop value $1.26 billion (1st in county); 1970: 6,416 harvested acres, $4.2 million.
Grapes – 2020: 179,205 acres, crop value $1.04 billion (2nd in county); 1970: 171,117 acres, $113 million.
Pistachios – 2020: 123,007 acres, crop value $761.9 million (3rd in county); not reported separately until 1979 at 201 acres, $256,000.
Poultry, milk, cattle/calves – ranked fourth through sixth in 2020.
Garlic – 2020: 24,660 acres, crop value $398.6 million (7th in county); not reported separately until 1977 at 2,090 acres, $2.6 million.
Tomatoes – 2020: 77,240 acres, crop value $381.6 million (8th in county); 1970: 12,240 acres, $8.4 million.
Oranges – 2020: 30,454 acres, crop value $305.2 million (9th in county); 1970: 12,312 acres, $8.8 million;
Peaches – 2020: 17,425 acres, crop value $264.1 million (10th in county); 1970: 9,642 acres, $15.7 million.
Mandarins – 2020: 24,100 acres, crop value $262.5 million; not reported separately from other citrus fruits until 2011, 7,488 acres; $166.1 million.
Plums – 2020: 10,194 acres, crop value $158.2 million; 1970: 6992 acres, $14.8 million.
Nectarines – 2020: 10,481 acres, crop value $157.9 million; 1970: 4,321 acres, $9.8 million.
Onions – 2020: 16,600 acres, crop value $138.5 million; 1970: 950 acres, $1.5 million.
Cotton – 2020: 57,596 acres, crop value $137.3 million; 1970: 167,000 acres, $40.8 million.
Cantaloupes – 2020: 9,330 acres, crop value $76.8 million; 1970: 25,000 acres, $18.8 million.
Head lettuce – 2020: 6,030 acres, $65.6 million; 1970: 5,483 acres, $4.5 million (head lettuce and leaf lettuce combined).
Alfalfa hay – 40,100 acres, $57.8 million; 1970: 150,000 acres, $29.3 million.
Barley – Last reported separately in 2015: 1,790 acres, value $968,000; 1970: 195,000 acres, value of $14 million.
