This Land is Your (Exotic) Land: Agriculture in San Diego
Visitors to San Diego—especially those flying from the east over
the desert mountains and looking down on city sprawl—may be
surprised to learn that agriculture has always been one of the
top-grossing sectors of the county’s economy. This achievement
has required intensive cultivation of specialized crops, and has
involved moral and environmental costs associated with
dependence on the poorly paid labor of Mexican migrants, heavy
use of transported water, and the overapplication of pesticides
and fertilizers. The region thus fits within the larger patterns
of California agriculture. Nonetheless, San Diego County has
created a successful niche for itself as a producer of avocados,
flowers, palms, and other exotic landscaping plants. Agriculture
in San Diego is historically interesting not just because of its
economic importance, but also because it represents a
distinctive kind of farming—one that grows for an upscale
consumer market, and that emerged p