History of agriculture in California

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.