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Agriculture
The conflict between urban developers and farmers was given another, much sharper focus after Christmas in 2006, when the state experienced a record-breaking snowstorm that closed both I-40 and I-25 off and on for five days…. The upshot of the storm was a slowly dawning realization that New Mexico grocery stores usually have only a week’s supply of food, according to the New Mexico Grocers Association…. In a report from the New Mexico Climate Change Advisory Group at the beginning of 2007, it was revealed, according to Santa Fe New Mexican reporter Wendy Brown, that “only 3 percent of the state’s food is produced locally,” and much of that is dairy products (p. 80).
- In 2008, out of the state’s nearly two million people, 670,403 of them lived, worked, or ran small businesses in rural areas (p. 275).
- Nearly 58 percent of the total land area of New Mexico (more than 43 million acres in 2007) was devoted to agriculture (p. 276).
- Of the state’s twenty-one thousand or more farms, 87 percent were owned by families or individuals (p. 276).
Pecans: [In 2008] New Mexico's pecan industry was fifth in the country (p. 276).
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Open pecan shells still on the branches in the Mesilla Valley, Las Cruces. March 2010. |
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Pecan farmer Pat Gose’s niece, Hillary Avitia, helps care for saplings in Eileen Field (named for Gose’s mother) in the Mesilla Valley of Las Cruces. March 2010. |
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Three-year old trees in Dick Salopeck’s orchards in front of the Organ Mountains of Las Cruces. One cannot expect nuts before a tree’s seventh season. March 2010. |
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Dick Salopeck’s family orchards north of Las Cruces; these pecan trees were planted when he was twelve years old. After the trees are trimmed, the resulting wood chips are spread in the orchard, then bacteria is sprayed to break them down. March 2010. |
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Pecan orchard in the Mesilla Valley, Las Cruces. March 2010. |
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Pecan orchard in the Mesilla Valley, Las Cruces. March 2010. |
Los Poblanos: [A]s green-minded consumers in New Mexico’s big cities seek locally grown food, raising food for profit is becoming more attractive. A sizable new market is building for niche agriculture that not only provides local restaurants with vegetables, organic beef, pork, and fowl, but also supplies the growing number of area co-ops and farmers' markets (p. 275).
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Apprentice Shauna Pearson lifts the plastic cover to check on new plants and adjust the watering hoses at Los Poblanos, which runs a CSA (community supported agriculture) on the historic Los Poblanos Ranch in Albuquerque’s North Valley. There is an apprentice program for people who want to learn about farming. April 2009. |
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Shauna shows the work shares how to clean and bunch arugula for the CSA boxes. They are to start with twenty rubber bands on their wrist in order to keep track of how many they’ve completed. April 2009. |
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Michelle Posey, also an apprentice, transplants in the Los Poblanos greenhouse. April 2009. |
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Michelle Posey in the Los Poblanos greenhouse. April 2009. |
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Apprentice Michelle Posey harvests baby salad greens for the Los Poblanos CSA boxes. April 2009. |
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Apprentice Michelle Posey harvests baby salad greens for the Los Poblanos CSA boxes. April 2009. |
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