Monterey County crop report shows losses in vegetable production

Agriculture is the multi-billion dollar core of our economy in Monterey County.

However, new numbers released from last year’s crop report show an overall decrease in gross production value. Vegetables saw the most extreme decline because of the loss in romaine production from E. coli outbreaks, according to the agricultural commissioner.

“Farmers are at the whims of the marketplace and no more is that demonstrated than what happened with romaine this year. We saw a large recall that basically stopped the market for months on end,” Monterey County Farm Bureau Director Norm Groot said.

Romaine dropped vegetable growth, but there were other crops that picked it up with wine grapes at an all-time high. There was good news for strawberries too.

“We’re on fewer acres but more production this year which shows increased efficiencies in how they’re producing the product,” Groot said.

The top crops remained the same in 2018. Leaf lettuce valued at over $700 million is the leader with strawberries right behind. Just like 2017, head lettuce is the third most productive crop.

Among all the numbers, a group of people stood out in this year’s report. 10 women were honored for their part in growing the ag community in Monterey County.

One of those, Abby Taylor-Silva, who grew up in a farming house hold.

“All that really does is lift young women who say I can do the same thing. I think there are going to be jobs in agriculture 20 years from now that we haven’t even thought of yet and young women and men will fill those spots,” Abby Taylor-Silva, VP of Grower-Shipper Association, said.

While the jobs are there, we’ve also learned finding workers on the ground is still a huge struggle, meaning some fields just weren’t able to be harvested.

Groot says they need federal immigration reform policy to go through to have enough harvest hands to keep up production.

“If we can get at least a temporary workers program that works with specialty crops here particularly the transfer ability between employers that will solve a lot of our problems,” Groot said.

Cannabis was originally expected to be on the 2018 crop report, but because of pending legislation it was left off.