Well, it might be well down on the list after California, Florida, and others as far as public awareness, but the state of Arizona is very important agriculturally speaking. In fact, it is one of the main agricultural areas in the United States of America. With much of the state considered desert, the innovations in irrigation of the last century has meant that perfect growing conditions for many crops have been met. Thanks to pipeline strainers and other reinforcing tools, Arizona is able to produce many of the important commodities we look at below.
If you are up north in the middle of winter and call a Toronto caterer to host a party for you, odds are that the lettuce in the salads is coming from an area near to some Chandler AZ real estate. Lettuce is the biggest crop grown in Arizona, accounting for a whopping 14% of all the state's agricultural receipts. Yuma, south of Chandler, is known as the winter lettuce capital of the world, one of the only places in the country where this staple crop can be grown all year long.
Used septic tank trucks and other industrial vehicles are handy when it comes to irrigating and spreading pesticides over the lettuce and other crops Arizona is famous for. Look closely on any given day, and you will see such trucks moving along the rows of cotton, another important Arizona crop and one of the state's main exports. Numbers indicate that enough cotton is grown in the state to make one pair of jeans for every person in the country, every single year!
Other important crops at the national scale grown in Arizona include melons, lemons, spinach, and broccoli. The state ranks second in production of all of these fruits and vegetable, which comes as a surprise to many.
Two species of domestic animal are farmed on a large scale in Arizona, using horse waterers for their drinking supplies. Cattle are particularly important, as those used for both beef and dairy account for nearly half of the state's measurable farm income. Sheep, pigs, and chickens are also found in large numbers in different pockets of the states.
Finally, many people are surprised to learn that to the north at least, Arizona is very important in the timber industry. With the largest contiguous stand of Ponderosa pine in the world, the supply from Arizona keeps many lumber banding machines working all year long.
| 