Agricultural Legacy
The San Joaquin Valley’s agricultural legacy highlights the river’s vital role in shaping our cultural past and future. The Blueway will be sensitive to the concerns of the agricultural community, and it will enhance the water resources that help make San Joaquin Valley farmland an important part of regional, national, and global economies.
The economic stability of the San Joaquin Valley depends upon agriculture. The San Joaquin River irrigates one million acres of farmland that produces $2 billion in crops every year, accounting for over 30 percent of all employment in the Valley. The San Joaquin River Blueway will link Valley communities to this rich agricultural heritage and highlight farming’s critical role in the future. Implementation of the Blueway will support working farms and ranches by encouraging schools and communities to emphasize the preservation and interpretation of the Valley’s agricultural heritage, and by providing opportunities for growers and entrepreneurs to highlight local foods and crop production.
Before coming to live here, I was like a square in a round world. I’m American born, second generation, but both of my parents came from Japan. I grew up in San Diego, but I had never felt like I fit with life in the city. When I married into the Takahashi family and my husband, Ted, started a farm here by the river, it was the life I needed. We stared faming on the San Joaquin River in the early 1970‘s... River bottom soil is rich, very rich.