Hill, S. (2016, November 09). Big Increases for Corn, Cotton and Rice. AgNet West – California Agriculture News. Retrieved November 20, 2016, from http://agnetwest.com/2016/11/09/november-crop-production-report/

This article addressed the increases in crop yield this year. It reported that the number of acres of corn planted for grain harvest in California raised to 75,000 acres. The number of acres planted increased by 25% from the previous year. It is projected that a total of 378,000 tons of corn will be harvested this year, 43% more than last year. The USDA-NASS also predicts that 5.04 tons of corn will be harvested per acre which is 15% more than the year before.

It’s interesting to see that crop yield continues to go up even though California is not a huge corn producing state. We already have a surplus of corn being produced why does the US and particularly California promote growing more corn. As we have read in The Omnivore’s Dilemma growing corn has many environmental costs. It is not efficient and requires large amounts of fossil fuels to grow. Because of this is does not make sense to continue to increase crop output.