The marijuana crop is quickly becoming the number one agriculture crop in the State. Politicians need to be careful—it is now a short ride to the legalization of all drugs. Nutty San Fran State Senator Weiner had a bill to do that. While it never got out of Committee, it will be back.
“In trends we will likely see when the San Luis Obispo crop report is published, Santa Barbara County’s crop production in 2020 climbed to $1.8 billion – surpassing the gross production value for the prior year by $219 million. Strawberries again are the top crop.
Also in the past few weeks, neighbor Monterey County published their 2020 crop report with strawberries up in value and reaching number one in value.Overall the value of all crops in Monterey County dropped 11% from 2019 to $3.2 billion. Strawberries had a value of $922 million – a 26% increase from 2019.
As the marijuana crop grows, so will the donations of the weed growers to politicians. The tipping point will be the passage of the Weiner bill.
Pot #2 crop in Santa Barbara County/ Cannabis tops lettuce in Monterey County
Sierra to the Sea, 8/1/21
In trends we will likely see when the San Luis Obispo crop report is published, Santa Barbara County’s crop production in 2020 climbed to $1.8 billion – surpassing the gross production value for the prior year by $219 million. Strawberries again are the top crop.
Also in the past few weeks, neighbor Monterey County published their 2020 crop report with strawberries up in value and reaching number one in value.Overall the value of all crops in Monterey County dropped 11% from 2019 to $3.2 billion. Strawberries had a value of $922 million – a 26% increase from 2019.
For the first time, both counties included a special section on cannabis cultivation in their county although not including the values in their gross production figures despite their impressive values.
Pot valued at nearly $500 Million
In Monterey County, the value of cannabis cultivation reached $484 million, more valuable than the county’s world famous head lettuce crop ranked number 2 in the listing that did not include pot numbers. The 2020 lettuce crop dropped in value from 2019 by 16.6%.
SB County strawberry values
In Santa Barbara County, the cannabis crop appears to be the second most valuable crop in the county – valued at just under $200 million. That number is only eclipsed by strawberries at $727 million on increased acreage – mostly in the Santa Maria area.
In a nutshell, SB County’s strawberries were up, wine grapes down and flowers apparently wilting- way down in both acreage and value – half of what they were in 2019. The decline in value is often attributed to the fact that many greenhouses on the Central Coast have been converted to cannabis over a several year period. The flower and nursery crops in Monterey County in 2020 also took a hit,dropping in value on demand for cannabis greenhouses, says the ag commissioner.
The SB report also offers a comparison of the 2019 year vs 2018 for the county’s fishing industry. In 2019, commercial fishing operations working from Santa Barbara Harbor and Gaviota Beach landed more than 135 different species , valued at almost $11 million- a decline of around $1 million.
