The history of agriculture in California began with California's indigenous peoples and was radically altered by colonization and statehood. Throughout its history agriculture has formed an important part of the state's economy. California has led the nation in farm production sales since 1948.
Pre-1850
Indigenous Californian Land Management Peake & Fleure 1927 propose that many crop wild relatives and a climate with both a rainy season and a dry season are necessary for an area to become a center of agriculture. Before human arrival a wide variety of crop wild relatives were already found there and although most of the land has a monotonously desert or near-desert rain supply some areas have a climate type called Mediterranean. Archaeologists have uncovered seeds from sunflowers and marsh elder that have been altered by the domestication process.
Since initial contact between Europeans and Indigenous American peoples, the topic of Native American agriculture has been debated. While agriculture in pre-contact California certainly did not fit into the Western definition of agriculture, the keen stewardship of California's natural ecosystem by Indigenous Californians to achieve the best possible output of resources is "agricultural," with California's ecosystems acting as a large, unbounded agricultural site. Because of this difference in ideology, agricultural practices in pre-contact California often took a different form than those of Europe. However, the concept of Indigenous Californians as hunter-gatherers has shifted over time. While Native Californians did not have domesticated crops or animals, their knowledge and methods of land stewardship and cultivation allowed them to thrive successfully on the California land. Thus, Indigenous Californians are now considered proto-agriculturists.
Some California hunter-gatherer tribes, including the Owens Valley Paiute, developed irrigation. In addition, the Kumeyaay created water and erosion management systems where rocks, boulders, and plants were placed on slopes to create a drainage system that would keep the soil wet for planting. Plants alongside the system served as food and for medicinal purposes; thus, the system would often be maintained and repaired when needed.
Native Californians were skilled at gathering materials from plants at all times of the year, allowing the consistent gathering of materials from any and all local plants. Depending on when various plants—including succulents, flowers, and trees—bloomed or became ripe, different aspects of the plant could be accessed or harvested by Native California peoples.
Native Californians also developed strategies when it came to competing with animals for resources. The Kashaya Pomo, for example, timed their harvest of dogwood to be before insects and worms would be able to access the inner parts of the plant. Indigenous Californians also developed strategies for acquiring black oak acorns directly from tree branches using a long pole, increasing harvest yields that would otherwise have been disturbed by animals.
Black oak acorn harvests were further increased by cultural burning, which stimulated acorn growth and increased biodiversity in the area. Cultural burning was commonly practiced throughout California to maintain a healthy landscape that produced quality resources, as the Karuk, Yurok, and Hupa peoples all regularly burned areas of bear grass and California hazelnut and to encourage the growth of stronger stems that could be used for basketry. The Pomo indigenous peoples of California utilized intentional cutting of Carex rhizomes. When cut, the rhizomes regrew straight, which the Pomo utilized extensively in the weaving of baskets.
Some researchers have suggested that the oak trees are going through a population collapse. Citing the lack of Native American silviculture as a large factor to the decline in Oak, Walnut, and possibly even redwoods. Opponents of this theory have argued that the change in climate due to global warming and modern human industrial behavior as the culprit behind the decline.
Native Californians practiced cultural burning and practiced pruning, coppicing, sowing, and weeding to maintain the land. These management methods mimicked the natural disturbances plants often experienced such as annual flooding and lightning fires. These practices kept the shrubs that were used for basketry from re-entering the adult stage; therefore, keeping the branches of the shrubs pliable for basketry and free from insects, mosses, and lichens.
Evidence of agricultural tools is sparse, however the Yuma of the lower Colorado River were documented utilizing various wooden tools to manage the plants. These tools may have been made out of stone or other materials but none have been found. The tools found were constructed from wood and each tool served a specific purpose. For example, a special planting stick was used only to plant teparies. Other types of sticks such as side-scraper hoes and regular planting sticks were used for weeding, pruning, digging and planting.
These methods of management also created many Indigenous foodways. Indigenous Californians gathered and processed a variety of resources, such as nuts and seed from gray pin and sugar pine trees. After collecting these resources, Indigenous Northern Californians would then process the nuts by either grinding or steaming the nuts. Various foods such as flour and butter were created from these processing methods.
Colonial Mission Establishment In the late 1700s, Franciscan missionaries established Spanish missions in California. Like earlier Spanish missions established in Baja California, these missions were surrounded by agricultural land, growing crops from Europe and the Americas, and raising animals originating from Europe. Indigenous workers from Baja California made up a large part of the initial labor force on California missions. In the early 1800s, this flow of laborers from Baja California had largely stopped, and the missions relied on converts from local tribes. By 1806, over 20,000 Mission Indians were "attached" to the California missions. As missions were expected to become largely self-sufficient, farming was a critically important Mission industry. George Vancouver visited Mission San Buenaventura in 1793 and noted the wide variety of crops grown: apples, pears, plums, figs, oranges, grapes, peaches, pomegranates, plantain, banana, coconut, sugar cane, indigo, various herbs, and prickly pear. Livestock was raised for meat, wool, leather, and tallow, and for cultivating the land. In 1832, at the height of their prosperity, the missions collectively owned over 150,000 cattle and over 120,000 sheep. They also raised horses, goats, and pigs.
While the Spanish were the most successful farmers active in California in the early 1800s, they were not the only ones. In 1812, the Russians established Fort Ross in what is now Sonoma County, California, and intended the fort in part as an agricultural supply point for other Russian activity on the west coast. Despite Russian plans for the colony, agriculture at Fort Ross had low yields, significantly lower than the California missions. Inefficient farming methods, labor shortages, coastal fog, and rodents all contributed to limit agriculture at the fort.
The Spanish (1784–1810) and Mexican (1819–1846) governments made a large number of land grants to private individuals from 1785 to 1846. These ranchos included land taken from the missions following government-imposed secularization in 1833, after which the missions' productivity declined significantly. The ranchos were focused on cattle, and hides and tallow were their main products. There was no market for large quantities of beef (before refrigeration and railroads) until the California Gold Rush.
1850–1900
In 1848, before the Gold Rush, the population of California was about 15,000, not counting Native Americans. By 1852, there were over 250,000 people in the new state. and by 1870, 560,000 people. This rapid population growth drove an increase in importation of agricultural products, and, within a few years, a massive growth in in-state agriculture. In the first years of the gold rush, the state relied on agricultural imports arriving by ship, from Australia, Chile, and Hawaii. During these years, there was rapid growth in vegetable farming for local markets. This was followed by an expansion of grain farming. A shift in the economic dominance of grain farming over cattle raising was marked by the passage of the California "No-Fence Law" of 1874. This repealed the Trespass Act of 1850, which had required farmers to protect their planted fields from free-ranging cattle. The repeal of the Trespass Act required that ranchers fence stock in, rather than farmers fencing cattle out. The ranchers were faced with either the high expense of fencing large grazing tracts or selling their cattle at ruinous prices. By the 1890s, California was second in US wheat production, producing over one million tons of wheat per year, but mono-crop wheat farming had depleted the soil in some areas resulting in reduced crops.
The Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony (1869 - 1871) is believed to be the first permanent Japanese settlement in North America. The group exhibited their produce during the 1869 California State Agricultural Fair in Sacramento and the 1870 Horticultural Fair in San Francisco.
David Jacks (businessman) popularised Monterey Jack cheese in the 1860s.
During the 1890s, the oyster industry thrived until it became the single most important fishery in the state, with the San Leandro Oyster Beds being of particular importance.
Irrigation was almost nonexistent in California in 1850, but by 1899, 12 percent of the state's improved farmland was irrigated.
Luther Burbank moved to Santa Rosa, California in 1875, and developed numerous commercially successful varieties of plants over the next 50 years.
1900–1950
The 1902 Newlands Reclamation Act funded irrigation projects on arid lands in 20 states including California.
The 1903 Oxnard strike was a labor rights dispute in southern California where Japanese and Mexican sugar beet laborers challenged sugar beet companies over wages, commissions, and worker freedoms.
In 1905, the California legislature passed the University Farm Bill, which called for the establishment of a farm school for the University of California (at the time, Berkeley was the sole campus of the university). The commission took a year to select a site for the campus, a tiny town then known as Davisville. UC Davis opened its doors as the "University Farm" to 40 degree students (all male) from UC Berkeley in January 1909.
The California Alien Land Law of 1913 prohibited "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning agricultural land or possessing long-term leases over it, but permitted leases lasting up to three years. It affected the Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Korean immigrant farmers in California.
The 1913 Wheatland hop riot was a violent confrontation during a strike of agricultural workers demanding decent working conditions in Wheatland, California. The riot, which resulted in four deaths and numerous injuries, was among the first major farm labor confrontations in California.
In 1915, the Pure Milk Act defined margarine and pasteurization and established statewide milk grading.
In 1919, the California Department of Food and Agriculture was established. The department covers state food safety, state protection from invasive species, and promoting the state's agricultural industry.
In 1924, a major foot-and-mouth disease outbreak lead to quarantines, interstate embargoes, and the culling of over 100,000 animals.
The California water wars were a series of political conflicts between the city of Los Angeles and farmers and ranchers in the Owens Valley of eastern California over water rights.