Tyler HarranAgriculture can be found in the most unlikely places. I recently spent spring break in Phoenix, Arizona. One thing that caught my eye was the amount of farmland that seemed to occupy everything not inhabited by people. Why would there be some much agriculture in such a hostile environment, I wondered. Well, it turns out that not only is agriculture extremely productive in this region, but it has a very long history. When Phoenix was incorporated as a town in 1881, the native “Hohokam” people had already been farming there for over a thousand years. The Hohokam people had an impressively advanced system of irrigation canals that supported a thriving agricultural community. The network was so good that when settlers began arriving in the 1860’s, they used the ruins of the very same canals to water crops that provided food for miners. It’s no wonder, then, that they named the city after the mythical bird that rose from the ashes of a previous civilization – “Phoenix”. Today, ranching and agriculture is the state’s second largest source of revenue, second only to mining. Arizona ranks second in the production of lemons, third in the production of tangerines, and at one point led the nation in cotton. Dairy is Arizona’s leading agricultural product. And pecan harvests average about $52 million dollars annually. They also post impressive apple yields and are turning more to non-food crops like sorghum and guayule. By using the age old methods of dry-land farming, recycling of irrigation water, throwing in some innovation and responsibility, this locale of the desert Southwest has continued to prove that agriculture can exist (and thrive) almost anywhere.
