The Central Coast, which spans from San Mateo County to San Luis Obispo County, is home to both the most fertile agricultural land in the state and the largest national marine sanctuary in the country. Protecting the viability of both has required a new way of thinking about the relationship between agriculture and the environment.

The Central Coast supports a $5 Billion dollar agricultural industry that includes more than 200 crops, and employs over 60,000 people. The Sanctuary covers 5000 square miles of water off California's Central Coast and is home to over 30 threatened or endangered species. The broad scope and unique collaboration has made AWQA a model approach to resource conservation that is now being replicated in other areas of the state, from the Central Valley to Mendocino County.

Since January, 2000, AWQA has prevented more than 450,000 tons of soil from eroding into sanctuary waters (the equivalent of a football field piled 23 stories tall with soil). The $5.5 million program has financed education, technical assistance, environmental quality enhancement projects and installations, a one-stop permit process, and resource assessment programs that have made these results, and others, possible.

The following is a list of the TOP FIVE most valuable crops per county and the Total Value of Agriculture products per county:

County	Value
Monterey 2005
Lettuce, Leaf	$600.8 million
Strawberries	$390.9 million
Lettuce, Head	$311.8 million
Nursery	$276.2 million
Grapes	$254.6 million
County Total	$3.273 Billion (state ranking: 4th)
San Benito 2005
Lettuce (salad)	$35.8 million
Nursery Stock	$33.6 million
Misc. Veg. & Row Crops	$23.0 million
Winegrapes	$19.9 million
Bell Peppers	$19.5 million
County Total	$268.8 million (state ranking: 29th)
San Luis Obispo 2005
Winegrapes (All)	$194.3 million
Cattle & Calves	$53.0 million
Broccoli (All)	$50.1 million
Vegetable Transplants	$30.2 million
Strawberries	$29.4 million
County Total	$596.7 million (state ranking: 16th)
San Mateo 2005
Ornamental Nursery Stock	$22.6 million
Potted Foliage Plants	$15.4 million
Potted Orchids	$10.3 million
Brussels Sprouts	$5.5 million
Potted Poinsettia	$3.7 million
County Total	$162.0 million (state ranking:35th)
Santa Clara 2005
Nursery Crops	$86.3 million
Mushrooms	$58.0 million
Bell Peppers	$9.1 million
Cut Flowers	$8.6 million
Steer and Heifers	$8.3 million
County Total	$252.3 million (state ranking: 30th)
Santa Cruz 2005
Strawberries	$128.6 million
Raspberries	$112.4 million
Landscape Plants	$29.2 million
Misc. Vegetables	$18.7 million
Lettuce, Leaf	$18.7 million
County Total	$418.1 million (state ranking: 20th)

More Crop Statistics
These documents include a variety of crop statistics related to California.

2002 Average Size Farms / County (34K PDF)
This document provides information on a per county basis.  The categories of statistics include: land area, number of farms, land in farms, average size of farm, percent of land area in farms, harvested crop land, irrigated land, land in irrigated farms.

2005

Monterey County Crop Report (1.77MB PDF)

San Benito County Crop Report (538K PDF)

San Luis Obispo County Crop Report (897K PDF)

Santa Clara County Crop Report (1.03MB PDF)

San Mateo County Crop Report (190K PDF)

Santa Cruz County Crop Report (303K PDF)

 

2004

Monterey County Crop Report (4.81MB PDF)

San Benito County Crop Reports (337K PDF)

Santa Clara County Crop Report (219K PDF)

Santa Cruz County Crop Report (241K PDF)

San Luis Obispo County Crop Report (1.46MB PDF)

2003

Monterey County Crop Report (970K PDF)

San Benito County Crop Report (393K PDF)

San Luis Obispo County Crop Report (614K PDF)

Santa Clara County Crop Report (93K PDF)

Santa Cruz County Crop Report (98K PDF)

Archives: past reports can be found at the following websites

Monterey http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/ag/

San Benito http://www.san-benito.ca.us/departments/ag/crop_report.htm

San Luis Obispo http://www.sloag.org/Agriculture%20Resources/crop%20reports.htm

Santa Clara http://www.sccgov.org/channel/0,4770,chid%253D52432,00.html

Santa Cruz http://www.agdept.com/crop02.html

San Mateo County past reports are not available electronically, but you can contact them at (650) 363-4700 and they will send you a copy.