"Like ribbons of green and gold": Industrializing lettuce and the quest for quality in the Salinas Valley, 1920-1965

Agricultural History

Volumn 80, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 269-295

  Petrick, Gabriella M ^a  

^a NEW YORK UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL HISTORY; COMMODITY MARKET; CROP PRODUCTION; INDUSTRIALIZATION;

CALIFORNIA; NORTH AMERICA; SALINAS VALLEY; UNITED STATES;

CHRYSOGONUM VIRGINIANUM; LACTUCA;

EID: 33745417828     PISSN: 00021482     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/ah.2006.80.3.269     Document Type: Article

References (127)

1. John Steinbeck, East of Eden (New York: Penguin Books, 2002), 429, 432, 435
2. Austin E. Anson, "Story of Lettuce is Story of Huge Salinas Valley Development," Salinas Californian, July 4, 1942, 2B.
3. A. A. Tavernetti, "70 Per Cent US Lettuce Raised in Salinas-Watsonville Area," Salinas Californian, June 7, 1948, Rodeo Edition, 8C.
4. For a listing of the variety of fresh produce grown in the valley, see, "Farming Changed over 100 Years: From Sugar Beets to Lettuce, Valley Marched to Agricultural Drummer," The Californian, Apr. 30, 1991, 6;
5. "County Crop Value Total $107 Million," Salinas Californian, Mar. 2, 1956, 1 and "Salad Bowl of the Nation," Salinas Californian, July 1964, Progress Edition, 2C. A. A. Tavernetti's nephew, Burton Anderson, wrote an agricultural history of the valley. Burton Anderson, America's Salad Bowl: An Agricultural History of the Salinas Valley (Salinas: Monterey County Historical Society, 2000).
6. Much of the literature on agricultural industrialization is based on economic analysis and evaluates agricultural change in staple commodities such as wheat, corn, cotton, and rice. On economic and policy aspects of industrial farming, see, William H. Clark, Farms and Farmers: The Story of American Agriculture (Boston: L. C. Page and Co., 1945)
7. Wayne D. Rasmussen, ed., Readings in the History of American Agriculture (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1960)
8. Edward Higbee, Farms and Farmers in an Urban Age (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1963)
9. Jack Ralph Kloppenburg Jr., First the Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology, 1492-2000 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988)
10. and H. Vincent Moses, "G. Harold Powell and the Corporate Consolidation of the Modern Citrus Enterprise, 1904-1922," Business History Review 69 (Summer 1995): 119-55. More recent scholarship on industrial farming includes R. Douglas Hurt, Problems of Plenty: The American Farmer in the Twentieth Century (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002).
11. Hurt largely focuses on governmental policy to support staple crops. Although he attempts to deal with technological issues, these issues are only dealt with on the most general level and largely occur after World War II. In a more recent examination of industrial agriculture, Deborah Fitzgerald examines the emergence of the ideology of industrial agriculture. She largely investigates the expansion and application of business practice to farming. Treating agriculture like any other industrial venture brought farming into the industrial ethos of the twentieth century, according to Fitzgerald. She argues that this is the first stage of an incomplete industrial revolution in American farming, Every Farm a Factory: The Industrial Ideal in American Agriculture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003)
12. Steven Stoll, The Fruits of Natural Advantage: Making the Industrial Countryside in California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).
13. Stoll, The Fruits of Natural Advantage
14. David Vaught, Cultivating California: Growers, Specialty Crops, and Labor, 1875-1920 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 3-9.
15. In Paul W. Rhode's article, "Learning, Capital Accumulation, and the Transformation of California Agriculture," he observes a similar level of intensification in agricultural production as Vaught. He notes that in 1890 California only supplied about one-fifth of the country's citrus, and it was not until after 1910 that local consumption of fruits became relatively insignificant. Before this, much of California's peach and plum production probably went into canneries, Journal of Economic History 55 (Dec. 1995):783-84.
16. Within the industry, "iceberg" was commonly used as a generic term to describe all crisp head varieties such as the 'New York,''Imperial,' and 'Great Lakes' varieties that dominated California agriculture from the 1920s through the 1960s. H. R. Wellman, "Series on California Crops and Prices: Lettuce," 'Berkeley, University of California Agricultural Station, 1926,' 7-9
17. Stanley S. Rogers, "Lettuce Growing in California," Circular No. 160 (Berkeley: University of California Agricultural Station, 1917),1
18. and A. A. Tavernetti and John B. Schneider, "Head-Lettuce Production in California," Circular No. 105 (Berkeley: University of California Agricultural Extension Service, 1938), 3.
19. Rogers, "Lettuce Growing in California," 2
20. Howard F. Gregor, "The Local-Supply Agriculture in California," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 47 (Sept. 1957): 267-76
21. Wellman, "Series on California Crops and Prices: Lettuce," 3-4, 7, 16, 26-29.
22. There are a series of Agricultural Extension Station circulars that describe the history of lettuce production in California and the districts that produced it, in addition to outlining the best cultivation practices available at the time. Many of these were co-authored by A. A. Tavernetti, the Monterey County farm agent. Tavernetti's family owned land and cultivated lettuce in Salinas and still does. See, Rogers, "Lettuce Growing in California"
23. H. A. Jones and A. A. Tavernetti, "The Head-Lettuce Industry of California," Circular No. 60 (Berkeley: California Agricultural Extension Service, 1932)
24. Tavernetti and Schneider, "Head-Lettuce Production in California"
25. J. E. Knott and A. A. Tavernetti, "Production of Head-Lettuce in California," Circular No. 128 (Berkeley: California Agricultural Extension Service, 1944)
26. and F. J. Veihmeyer and A. H. Holland, "Irrigation and Cultivation of Lettuce: Monterey Bay Region Experiments," Bulletin No. 711 (Berkeley: California Agricultural Extension Service, 1949).
27. Jones and Tavernetti, "The Head-Lettuce Industry of California," 6
28. Wellman, "Series on California Crops and Prices: Lettuce," 9. On changing dietary habits in the United States, see, Marguerite C. Burk, "Trends and Patterns in US Food Consumption," Agricultural Handbook No. 214 (Washington, DC: USDA, 1961), 23.
29. "Supplement for 1954 to Consumption of Food in the United States, 1909-1952," Agricultural Handbook No. 62 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1955, 117
30. Hodgson and Murphy, "Lettuce," 19-6. Lettuce continued to rank as the most frequently consumed green vegetable through the 1980s. According to plant geneticists, lettuce ranked fourth in fresh produce consumption behind tomatoes, oranges, and potatoes. It was the most consumed green or leafy vegetable. Y. Rouget, "Optimization of Lettuce Calli Regeneration from Protoplasts," in Progress in Plant Protoplast Research: Proceedings of the 7th International Protoplast Symposium, Wageningen, the Netherlands, December 6-11, 1987, ed. K. J. Puite (Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988), 79.
31. By the 1950s the region became known as the Salinas-Watsonville-Hollister District, and sometimes Salinas was also grouped with Pajaro Valley as the Salinas-Pajaro Valley. James J Parsons, "The Uniqueness of California," American Quarterly 7 (Spring 1955): 45-46.
32. For a discussion of soil in the Salinas Valley, see, E. J. Carpenter and Stanley W. Cosby, Soil Survey of the Salinas Area, California (Washington, DC: USDA, 1925).
33. On cultivated acreage, see, "Entire Economy of Salinas Basin is Dependent on Good Water Supply," Salinas Californian, Nov. 17, 1949.
34. On water resources of the Salinas Valley, see, Harold Conkling, "Salinas Basin Preliminary Investigation," Publications of the Division of Water Resources (n.p.: State of California Department of Public Works, 1933), 5
35. and "Summary of the San Lucas Project in Salinas River Basin, Monterey County," c. 1950, Water Problems - Monterey County Folder, Monterey County Historical Society, Salinas, Ca. (hereafter MCHS).
36. Many parts of California went through a similar agricultural transition, becoming increasingly dependent on irrigation. Most often the shift to more water-intensive crops brought higher profits to farmers. On the changing nature of California agriculture based on irrigation, see, M. K. Bennett, "Climate and Agriculture in California," Economic Geography 15 (Apr. 1939): 153-64
37. Howard F. Gregor, "Agricultural Shifts in the Ventura Lowland of California," Economic Geography 29 (Oct. 1953): 340-61
38. H. F. Raup, "Transformation of Southern California to a Cultivated Land," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 49 (Sept. 1959): 58-78
39. Donald J. Pisani, From the Family Farm to Agribusiness: The Irrigation Crusade in California and the West, 1850-1931 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).
40. On increased irrigation in the San Joaquin Valley and other drier areas of California from 1943-1954, see, Gregor, "The Local-Supply Agriculture in California"
41. Rhode, "Learning, Capital Accumulation, and the Transformation of California Agriculture." Rhode argues that the expansion of California fruit production had more to do with "biological learning" and falling farm interest rates than the development of transportation and irrigation infrastructure. According to Rhode's analysis, Salinas farmers would have benefited from the previous generations of horticultural farmers. On western water resources, see, Robert A. Sauder, The Lost Frontier: Water Diversion in the Growth and Destruction of Owens Valley Agriculture (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994).
42. Anderson, America's Salad Bowl.
43. Andrew Clark argues that railroads and canals allowed farmers in the West to connect with those in the East and participate more fully in local, regional, and national economies. Andrew H. Clark, "Suggestions for the Geographical Study of Agricultural Change in the United States, 1790-1840" in Farming in the New Nation: Interpreting American Agriculture, 1790-1840, ed. Darwin P. Kelsey (Washington, DC: Agricultural History Society, 1972)
44. Rhode, "Learning, Capital Accumulation, and the Transformation of California Agriculture."
45. For a detailed examination of iced reefer cars in California, including sections on ice harvesting and mechanical ice production, see, Anthony W. Thompson, Robert J. Church, and Bruce H. Jones, Pacific Fruit Express, 2nd ed. (Berkeley: Signature Press, 2000).
46. The authors chronicle every car Pacific Fruit Express manufactured from 1906 to 1978. The company was founded by the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads to specifically ship produce to eastern markets. Wayne D. Rasmussen has argued that mechanical harvesting of tomatoes depended on a "package" or "systems" approach to technological development. This included machines, seed stock, irrigation, careful cultivation practices, and chemical compounds to control diseases and pests. He sees packages of technology as a relatively recent phenomenon, around 1940.
47. Wayne D. Rasmussen, "Advances in American Agriculture: The Mechanical Tomato Harvester as a Case Study," Technology and Culture 9 (Oct. 1968) 531-43.
48. Thomas P. Hughes's systems approach to technological systems, which is a more inclusive and less celebratory model, can be traced back to the turn of the twentieth century. By historicizing the development and growth of a system, Hughes is able to trace various stages of development and discuss problems or "reverse salients" associated with technological systems over time. I rely on this broader definition of a technological system.
49. See, Thomas P. Hughes, Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983)
50. and "The Evolution of Large Technological Systems" in The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology, ed. Wiebe E. Bijker, Thomas P. Hughes, and Trevor J. Pinch (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1987), 51-82.
51. Rolin G. Watkins, "1922 Lettuce Boomed," Salinas Californian, Mar. 4, 1974, 8B, 9B
52. Bruce Church, "When Lettuce Industry Was Younger," Salinas Californian, Sept. 20, 1947, 36A.
53. Church, "When Lettuce Industry Was Younger," 36A.
54. According to historian James C. Williams, by the time Salinas Valley growers were starting large-scale lettuce production, PG & E was already electrifying California farms to better manage their load factor. By 1910 there was an electrical line running from Salinas south to King City and west to Monterey. By 1925 Watsonville and Hollister were also connected making relatively cheap hydroelectric power available to the entire valley. Williams further explains that the rest of the country lagged behind California in rural electrification. Williams, Energy and the Making of Modern California (Akron: University of Akron Press, 1997), 188, 196, and 218-36.
55. On rural electrification, see, Clark C. Spence, "Early Uses of Electricity in American Agriculture," Technology and Culture 3 (Spring 1962): 142-60
56. Ronald R. Kline, Consumers in the Country: Technology and Social Change in Rural America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).
57. On the use of electricity in California agriculture, see also, Hughes, Networks of Power, 262-84.
58. "1917-1957 - 40 Years of Lettuce History," The Packer, Apr. 27, 1957, Scrapbook 1949-1960, Grower-Shipper Vegetable Association of Central California, Salinas, Ca. (hereafter GSVA). Historical crop reports of Monterey County, Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner, http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/ag/archived_reports.htm, accessed Dec. 1, 2004, spreadsheet with data in possession of author. The exact mix of commodities and their contribution to agricultural income changed over time, but dry beans, tomatoes, milk, and beef all contributed significantly to the county's agricultural income, although at much lower rates than lettuce.
59. Gaynor Maddox, "California Valleys Sprout Produce, Millionaires," Salinas Californian, Sept. 26, 1955, 10.
60. On Bruce Church, see, "Who's Who in the Produce Industry: Bruce Church," The Pink Sheet, Oct. 26, 1940, Scrapbook Dec. 1939-Mar. 1941, GSVA;
61. Austin E. Anson, "Story of Lettuce is the Story of Huge Salinas Valley Development," 2B
62. A. A. Tavernetti, "Lettuce Production Per Acre Materially Increased Locally During Recent Years," Salinas Californian, Dec. 11, 1954, 6A. The grower names come from reading letters and reports from the Grower-Shipper Association. They are also noted in many articles on lettuce.
63. "Grower-Shipper Vegetable Assn. in Annual Meet," The Packer, June 15, 1940, Scrapbook Dec. 1939-Mar. 1941, GSVA
64. "What about Perishables?" Salinas Morning Post, Dec. 1, 1940, 6
65. "Grower-Shipper Group Organized in 1930," Salinas Californian, June 12, 1950, 9A
66. "Grower-Shipper Organized in 1930," Salinas Californian, Rodeo Edition, July 1953, 2D, Scrapbook 1949-1960
67. "65 Firms Listed in Grower-Shipper Group" Salinas Californian, July 1953, Rodeo Edition, 2D, Scrapbook 1949-1960, GSVA.
68. Jack Bias to Frank Smith, Jan. 8, 1958, UC Research 1951-1961 Folder, GSVA. The letter refers to the place of smaller growers in the valley relative to the oligopolistic growershippers. Earl Dillingham, "The Lettuce Industry in the Salinas Valley," 1947, p. 1, unpublished MS, Lettuce 1921-1922 & Other Vegetables Folder, MCHS.
69. Vertical integration is a business practice in which a company purchases companies that either supply them with goods or distribute their goods. The reason to vertically integrate is to better control and reduce the cost of transactions. C. V. Moore and J. Herbert Snyder, "Risk and Uncertainty in Lettuce Production in the Salinas Valley, California," Giannini Foundation Research Report No. 300 (Berkeley: California Agricultural Experiment Station, Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, Jan. 1969): 6.
70. On the history of vertical integration, see, Alfred D. Chandler, The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1977)
71. and Moses, "G. Harold Powell and the Corporate Consolidation of the Modern Citrus Enterprise, 1904-1922."
72. "First Lettuce Shipment from Here Consisted of One Car; 20,000 Now Reach Markets Yearly," newspaper clipping, 1937, Lettuce 1921-1922 & Other Vegetables Folder, MCHS, 14. On the quantity of ice produced, see also, Dillingham, "The Lettuce Industry in the Salinas Valley," 2.
73. "Easterners Enjoy Tasty Salad Due to Efficient Operation of Industry," Salinas Index-Journal, Aug. 18, 1932, 14
74. "Monterey Ice Moves to Sell Out to Local Growers," newspaper clipping, Aug. 3, 1955, Scrapbook 1949-1960, GSVA.
75. On lettuce cultivation see note 6. On early ice handling in the Salinas Valley, see, Church, "When Lettuce Industry was Younger"
76. "Easterners Enjoy Tasty Salad Due to Efficient Operation of Industry."
77. Raymond G. Grogan, William C. Snyder, and Roy Bardin, "Diseases of Lettuce," Circular No. 448 (Berkeley: California Agricultural Extension Service, 1955)
78. "Trucking Answer," Salinas Index-Journal, newspaper clipping c. Mar. 1940, Scrapbook Dec. 1939-Mar. 1941, GSVA.
79. Dave Stidolph, "Vacuum Cooling, Once Radical Idea, Reigns Supreme," Watsonville Register-Pajaronian, Dec. 13, 1954, 11. See note 6 for a list of Extension Station circulars that address early lettuce research.
80. Stidolph, "Vacuum Cooling," 11.
81. Ibid.
82. Ibid.
83. Ibid.
84. Thompson, Pacific Fruit Express, 153.
85. Stidolph, "Vacuum Cooling," 11.
86. Ibid.
87. "Quick Chill for Salinas Lettuce," PG and E Progress 32 (Aug. 1955): 1, Lettuce 1921-1922 & Other Vegetables Folder, MCHS
88. "Ice Maker Meets Pre-Cooling Challenge," Watsonville Register-Pajaronian, Dec. 15, 1954
89. "New Union Ice Plant at Salinas," The Packer, Apr. 30, 1955, Union Ice Co.-Vacuum Cooling Folder, MCHS.
90. "Church, Antle Buy Vacuum Cool Patent, 9 units for $3 1/2 Million," newspaper clipping, Nov. 1, 1954, Scrapbook 1949-1960, GSVA.
91. "Lettuce Industry Survival at Stake," newspaper clipping, Nov. 25, 1954, Scrapbook 1949-1960, GSVA.
92. On the history of scientific research at the USDA, see, Swann T. Harding, Two Blades of Grass: A History of Scientific Development in the US Department of Agriculture (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1947).
93. For general histories of the USDA, see, William L. Winlass, The United States Department of Agriculture: A Study in Administration (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1920)
94. or John M. Gaus and Leon O. Wolcott, Public Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture (Chicago: R. R. Donnelly & Sons, 1940).
95. Both of these books outline the internal structure and the economic and political influence of the department. There is little mention of the research activities within the USDA except for soil conservation. On the history of California agricultural research at Berkeley and Davis, see, Thayer S. Thorn and Anne Foley Scheuring, Science & Service: A History of the Land-Grant University and Agriculture in California (Oakland: ANR Publications, University of California, 1995).
96. For a discussion of the political economy of plant breeding, see, Kloppenburg, First the Seed.
97. "Research Program Progress Report No. 2," Feb. 1, 1952, Memo. from R. L. Adams, Director of Research, p. 9
98. "Research Program Progress Report No. 6," Jan. 8, 1953, Memo. from R. L. Adams, p. 1, GSVA.
99. For a more general examination of the cost of insect damage and disease, see, George Ordish, Untaken Harvest: Man's Loss of Crops from Pest, Weed and Disease (London: Constable and Company, 1952), 15 and 21-29.
100. Plant breeding for particular characteristics was a slow process. The National Research Council commenting on plant genetics in the 1980s observed: "Though agriculture has profited immensely from the improved breeding practices developed from Mendelian genetics, the technology does have its limitations. One problem,... is time. It may take generations and generations to develop a desired strain through selection and breeding. The greatest limitation, however, is simply the available supply of genetic diversity." Board on Agriculture, National Research Council, Genetic Engineering of Plants: Agricultural Research Opportunities and Policy Concerns (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1984), 6-8.
101. Adams and Heller conducted experiments on chemical soil aerators, pesticides, and fertilizers, described in the Adams's research reports Nos. 1-14 from 1952 to 1953. "Research Program Progress Report No. 12," Memo. from R. L. Adams, July 13, 1953, p. 1
102. "Research Program Progress Report No. 14," Final Report of R. L. Adams, Dec. 17, 1953, p. 17, GSVA
103. "Lettuce Research Project Aided by Growers, Shippers," Salinas Californian, Jan. 29, 1955.
104. Jack Bias to John Jacobs, May 8, 1954
105. Ross A. Thompson to Bias, May 13, 1954
106. Victor R. Boswell to Bias, Aug. 23, 1954
107. Ross A. Thompson, "Report on the US Department of Agriculture Lettuce Breeding Program for the Salinas-Pajaro Valleys," p. 1, USDA Research 1953-1961 Folder, GSVA.
108. "Notice of Release of Lettuce Variety Calmar," Apr. 15, 1960
109. "Lettuce Mosaic Control Discussed," Salinas Californian, July 12, 1956, Scrapbook 1949-1960, GSVA
110. N. F. McCalley, "Outline of Work on Vegetables in the Salinas Valley - 1957," UC Research 1951-1961 Folder, GSVA.
111. On the history of entomology as a science and the development of integrated pest management, see, Paolo Palladino, Entomology, Ecology, and Agriculture: The Making of Scientific Careers in North America, 1885-1985 (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Press, 1996)
112. and Richard C. Sawyer, To Make a Spotless Orange: Biological Control in California (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996).
113. R. Bardin, et al., 1954 Research on Vegetable Production Problems in the Central Coastal Section of California (Davis: Agricultural Experiment Station, 1955), 7, 12.
114. In addition to the difficulty in producing indexed seed, lettuce seed also had a short shelf-life and needed to be produced on an annual basis. See, Oren L. Justice and Louise N. Bass, Principles and Practices of Seed Storage (Washington, DC: USDA, 1978), 7, 26-27.
115. Jack Bias to J. E. Knott, Apr. 24, 1961, UC Research 1951-1961 Folder, GSVA.
116. For an examination of systems ecology, see, Palladino, Entomology, Ecology, and Agriculture
117. and Sawyer, To Make a Spotless Orange. There is a large environmental literature that problematizes humans' relationship with the land.
118. A few of the early environmental works include Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979)
119. and William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England (New York: Wang and Hill, 1983)
120. and Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991).
121. Newer work includes John Soluri, "Accounting for Taste: Export Bananas, Mass Markets, and Panama Disease," Environmental History 7 (July 2002): 386-410
122. Willard W. Cochrane, The Curse of American Agricultural Abundance: A Sustainable Solution (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003)
123. and Mark J. Smith, "Creating an Industrial Plant: The Biotechnology of Sugar Production in Cuba," in Industrializing Organisms: Introducing Evolutionary History, ed. Susan R. Schrepfer and Philip Scranton (New York: Routledge, 2004), 85-106.
124. Jack Bias to Ewing Hass, Office of Senator Thomas Kuchel, July 18, 1963, USDA Research 1962-1963 Folder; Press Release, University of California at Riverside Public Information (Overland 4-2210) c. 1961, UC Research 1951-1961 Folder, GSVA
125. W. R. Barger, et al., "Transit Temperatures of California Lettuce," Marketing Research Report No. 285 (Washington, DC: USDA, 1958): 1-2.
126. Address by Assistant Secretary of Agriculture George L. Mehren, United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, Miami, Fla., Jan. 28, 1964, pp. 1-2, GSVA.
127. Anson, "Story of Lettuce is the Story of Huge Salinas Valley Development."