UNR’s foodie professors

A field guide to California agriculture has been written by—who else? —a couple of guys from Nevada. Specifically, they are geography professor Paul Starrs and art professor Peter Goin, both of the University of Nevada, Reno. The men have been working on the book for the past six years. With writings and photographs, it features more than 75,000 farms and ranches to make up a practical guide to California’s nearly 400 crops—from pistachio, cheese and wine to cattle, chili peppers and marijuana, all covered within the book’s 506 pages. It’s not entirely unfamiliar territory for the coauthors. Goin’s father once worked as a seasonal farmworker in California’s lemon groves, and Starrs has worked as a ranch hand.

Starrs and Goin last collaborated on the locally popular book Black Rock in 2005. Their new effort, Field Guide to California Agriculture, is published by the University of California Press.