*** VD 13 Commentary Thread ***

[Kevin Seitzer]

I only eat gluten free wheat, personally. And wild-caught beef.

I like free-range wheat and gluten-free beef.

[heyelander]

My mom is asking if you got your package....

sounds racy.

[Bene Futuis]

Not yet! I’ll go check the mail.

[chancellor]

That was my experience in San Jose, as well. If you were selective, you could find some pretty good places, but you couldn't just stumble into a good restaurant in San Jose the way you could in Austin.

Every restaurant seems better when you stumble in.

[The Feral Slasher]

Wow, some real action here today.

[The Feral Slasher]

I am on a hike, turning back halfway up. Ken would be so proud. Surprised i get service out here

[heyelander]

Chance wandered in so we are all trying to act civilized and not all bitchy

[heyelander]

it's like 197 degrees here today. No hiking for me

[cavebird]

Spending extensive time in Baton Rouge sure increased my gut, that’s for sure.

Yeah, but their food is nothing compared to New Orleans. They are the armpit of Louisiana, and not just because of the state government, lol.

FWIW, Indian food is wonderful, too. And Italy, great food there as well. But claiming that California grows, etc., the most food in the country is almost certainly incorrect. Plenty of food grown/raised there, but half the land mass of Cali is desert or too mountainous for any food cultivation. Yeah, tons of seafood off the coast, but the same could be said for Alaska and lots of other places. But if we want to have a contest, I'll be the judge and eat it all, lol.

[DMT]

Agreed, Italian food was great, probably #3 of the places I've been. Unfortunately haven't spent enough time in Mexico to give it proper consideration, but we have tons of good Mexican food here.

That's a bummer about your Indian experience. I was obviously fortunate that my wife is Indian so we got treated much better than most tourists I'm sure. In Goa (we stayed in the Indian section rather than the hippie area), I was treated like a rock star, signed a dozen autographs. On New Year's Eve, the place we went to was right on the beach, and at one point there were at least a hundred people crowding around just to watch me dance and dudes literally moshing each other to get in line to dance with me. It was insane.

[The Feral Slasher]

Yeah, but their food is nothing compared to New Orleans. They are the armpit of Louisiana, and not just because of the state government, lol.

FWIW, Indian food is wonderful, too. And Italy, great food there as well. But claiming that California grows, etc., the most food in the country is almost certainly incorrect. Plenty of food grown/raised there, but half the land mass of Cali is desert or too mountainous for any food cultivation. Yeah, tons of seafood off the coast, but the same could be said for Alaska and lots of other places. But if we want to have a contest, I'll be the judge and eat it all, lol.

I suspect california is the leading state in agriculture. Driving the length of it gives the appearance of one huge farm with a few big cities

[chancellor]

Yeah, but their food is nothing compared to New Orleans. They are the armpit of Louisiana, and not just because of the state government, lol.

Armpit....no disagreement here. But I’ll just say my NOLA experiences were overpriced and overrated. For my money, I’ll put Parrain’s in Baton Rouge against anything I had in New Orleans.

And they had draft Belgian ale.

[Kevin Seitzer]

I suspect california is the leading state in agriculture. Driving the length of it gives the appearance of one huge farm with a few big cities

According to the USDA, Texas has the most land in "farms". I put "farms" in quotes because the fact that Montana is second tells you all you need to know.

The official definition is:
A farm is “any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the year.” Government payments are included in sales. Ranches, institutional farms, experimental and research farms, and Indian Reservations are included as farms. Places with the entire acreage enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), and other government conservation programs are counted as farms.

In terms of revenue, California was the leading agricultural state in 2018, with $49.8 billion in receipts. Iowa was second at $27.5 billion, and the rest of the top 10 was as follows:
Texas $22.0b
Nebraska $21.3b
Minnesota $17.3b
Illinois $16.8b
Kansas $16.0b
North Carolina $11.1b
Wisconsin $11.0b
Indiana $10.5b

I think that list probably comports more with people's idea of farm production than the measure of area under "farm" production.

https://data.ers.usda.gov/reports.aspx?ID=17844

[Kevin Seitzer]

California grows a lot more high-dollar crops per area. Grapes bring in $6.3 billion in revenue to California farmers, for instance. Almonds $5.5 billion, strawberries $2.3 billion, etc.

[Kevin Seitzer]

California is also the sole producer for a lot of specialty products. For example, all $63 million in artichokes and all $33 million in kiwifruit produced in 2018 in the United States came from California.