More bad news for California cotton: more pistachio acreage ahead

In another sign of the pressure on cotton to maintain acreage in California, the California Pistachio Commission says it expects an additional 40,000 acres to be in production within five years. The report appeared in today's Food And Farm News (FAFN) published by the California Farm Bureau Federation.

Once a fairly exotic nut, pistachios have become a common crop in the San Joaquin Valley, where most of California's cotton is grown. Cotton already has been pressured by other permanent crops, including grapes and almonds. In the last few years, dairy farms also have been shifting from coastal counties into the valley, taking up land for facilities and for silage production.

About 30% of the state's pistachio crop is sold to foreign markets. Buyers in the European Union, Canada and elsewhere import the top-quality pistachios. California farmers produce, according to the item in FAFN. The state's interior farming country has nearly ideal conditions for growing the nut.

When I was a kid, they were always dyed red, came from the Middle East and were hard to open. The red dye, if you didn't know, was applied to hide blemishes, and the nuts were hard to open because lack of irrigation prevented them from filling out properly. Today's U.S.-grown pistachios are a superior nut. I bought a 2-pound bag not long ago for $5, which indicates the supply is strong.