Sad

[patgund]

The smell of Gilroy has always been wonderful. This is very sad news indeed.

Garlic Farms Getting Cleared Out Of Gilroy

"People enjoying the Gilroy Garlic Festival Saturday may not know that while the garlic may seem plentiful the area's garlic farms are disappearing.

Only three growers remain in Santa Clara County because of land-use pressure, economics and plant disease.

Garlic farmer Louie Bonino's farm used to be 40 acres, but the small farmer's crop now only covers 10 acres.

The county's garlic production has fallen due to economic pressures that have sent farmers east to the San Joaquin Valley and to China, where labor is cheaper.

And the ever-growing presence of strip malls in Santa Clara county have pushed garlic farmers to the land's fringes.

Soon, many small farmers say, Gilroy's famous garlic may be a thing of the past. "

Comments

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of all the orange groves that aren't anymore where I grew up in Riverside County.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

I live in a county that has one of the best farmland-preservation programs in the country, yet I still see good farmland turning into strip malls and housing developments at an uncomfortably fast rate. One day we're going to wake up and find that we're totally dependent on food imports.