All of us who reside in the beautiful bountiful Treasure Valley encounter some form of our great agricultural heritage. For some of us this may be driving past the hundreds of miles of canals in the Treasure Valley, for others it is the fields near our homes that we watch change from day to day and season to season.
Most people never stop to think about the impact that agriculture has on this valley, both historically and in the status quo. From the development of our water control system to being a large portion of the economy directly, through production, or indirectly, through shipping or marketing.
The Treasure Valley produces approximately seventy-five percent of the world's sweet corn seed. The farmers of the Treasure Valley along with seed companies create hybrids of established corn varieties. This seed to used to grow the corn that eventually ends up in a can or frozen, or even the corn on the cob you buy at chain grocery stores.
The semi-arid climate, water availability, volcanic rich soil, and ability to rotate a variety of crops makes our valley unique and vital to the balance of crops grown in the United States and through out the world.
The reservoir system on most of our rivers was started by the need for water to feed the early immigrants brave enough to settle in the barren sagebrush grassland this valley once was.
I will continue with the history of our waterways, reservoirs, and dams next time.
If you are interested in some facts about Idaho agriculture check out the link below, it's a PDF file from the Idaho State Department of Agriculture.
Think of Agriculture Today.
JHN
http://www.agri.state.id.us/Categories/Marketing/Documents/englishagfactsbrochure%202.pdf
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