Surrounding Kern County are thousands of acres of fields used to produce cotton, almonds, grapes, carrots and numerous other crops that are sent all over the world and provide billions of dollars to the United States, California and even Bakersfield.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture says that for over 50 years, California has been the most highly productive agriculture state, and according to the California Archives, Kern County has been producing cotton, corn and wheat since the late 1800s.
The Kern County Department of Agriculture and Measurement Standards produces an Agricultural Crop Report every year around the end of May to let the public and the California Department of Food and Agriculture know how the county did the previous year in annual earnings for crops produced. The report stated that in 2006 Kern County produced more than $2.1 billion in revenue and a majority of that money came from almonds, grapes, citrus, milk and carrots.
Almonds and grapes brought in just under $500 million each to the California revenue. Milk followed with $400 million and carrots and citrus came in behind with almost $390 million a piece. Those five crops, although not the only crops produced in Kern County, are the ones that brought in the most amount of money.
Kern County’s two major carrot producers in the San Joaquin Valley that played a part in earning that $2.1 billion dollars in 2006 are Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway Farms.
These carrot companies produce many different types of carrots in the central valley. Bolthouse also makes juices and dressings and Grimmway Farms owns King Pak, a potato company, and Cal-Organic Farms, a company that produces all organic foods.
According to Bolthouse Farms, they supply over 80 percent of the carrots in the United States and they have been located in Bakersfield since 1972. Bolthouse produces different kinds of carrots like baby carrots, carrot chips, along with four different types of yogurt dressings for salads like Classic Ranch and Thousand Island. They also produce 15 different types of fresh juices, smoothies and drinks made with protein, soy and whey.
Another company centrally located in Kern County is Grimmway Farms. Rod and Bob Grimm brought their carrot company to Bakersfield in 1981 and have made a name for themselves in the carrot industry.
According to their website, “Grimmway Farms processes 40,000 of California’s 75,000 acres of carrots.”
Carrots are not the only things that grow well in the central valley though. Kern County has soil that can help almond trees, citrus trees and even cotton grow well, and that is why the county can produce so many different types of produce in such abundance.