Banking on farming
As corporate capitalism falters, Butte County’s farms are bringing home the bacon
With Wall Street’s icons of the investor class falling like flies and the dollar becoming as weak as a Weimar deutschmark, Butte County residents can take some comfort—quite a lot, actually—in the fact that they live in the world’s most fertile and productive farm country. Economy be damned, people still gotta eat. And the weak dollar makes American-grown food products extremely attractive overseas, which is why they’re sold in 50 different countries. Local farmers’ costs are up, especially for energy, but so generally are sales and prices, with the 2007 total topping a half-billion dollars for the very first time, at $507,253,000. Here are the 2007 and 2006 figures for the top five Butte County crops:
| Crop | Year</</td> | Production (tons) | Price/ton | Total value |
| Almonds | 2007 | 37,198 | $3,580 | $133,170,000 |
| 2006 | 25,170 | $4,150 | $104,456,000 | |
| Rice | 2007 | 440,075 | $295 | $129,822,000 |
| 2006 | 435,373 | $288 | $125,387,000 | |
| Walnuts | 2007 | 50,014 | $2,100 | $105,029,000 |
| 2006 | 51,156 | $1,560 | $79,803,000 | |
| Dried plums | 2007 | 12,708 | $1,600 | $20,333,000 |
| 2006 | 32,634 | $1,350 | $44,056,000 | |
| Peaches | 2007 | 37,305 | $288 | $10,744,000 |
| 2006 | 21,492 | $276 | $10,744,000 |
Source: Butte County 2007 Agricultural Crop Report
More Local Stories » Sifter
Degrees that pay
A new study looks at schools based on the income of their graduates.
Published on 09.18.08
Burning Man: Bigger and better?
Published on 09.04.08
Local candidates quiz
Published on 08.28.08
Indian gaming’s economic impact
A new report provides some interesting statistics, for California and the nation.
Published on 08.21.08