Three-step relocation of ethnic mega-dairies of southern California

Abstract

Intensive dairying developed around big cities in California including Los Angeles. Los Angeles' milkshed in 1930 was found in the San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, and in the southwest and southeast sections of Los Angeles. Drylot dairies, however, moved to the southeast area including Belflower, Norwalk, Artesia, Dairy Valley in Los Angeles County, and Dairyland and Cypress in Orange County. During the 1960s, they were forced to move again to the Chino Valley due to urban encroachment. Since the 1980s and especially in the latter half of the 1990s, dairies in the Chino Valley began to seek space in the San Joaquin Valley, California, as well as in other western states. This paper intends to scrutinize the three-step relocation of Los Angeles' dairies with special reference to dairies' ethnic background. Dairy farming in the San Joaquin Valley was originated by the British and farmers from continental Europe, although Portuguese dairies came to predominate. Mega-dairies increased in the San Joaquin Valley due to the three-step relocation. Studies in Kern County suggest that the size of the dairy and the year of relocation are closely connected. The dairies that moved from southern California during the 1960s had fewer than 1,000 cows, while those that moved from the Chino Valley in the 2000s kept more than 3,000 cows. Dutch dairies that relocated from the Chino Valley to San Joaquin Valley now comprise 50% of ethnic dairies. Some Dutch families with brothers and sons migrated to open two to three mega-dairies in the San Joaquin Valley. They selected dairy sites along freeway interchanges and crossroad avenues, avoiding Azorean Portuguese dairies that are located in the suburbs of cities in Tulare County. However, county commissioners in the San Joaquin Valley hesitate to give permission to new mega-dairies due to such environmental problems as manure runoff, odor, and nitrate contamination of groundwater. Dairies in California began to seek new sites outside the San Joaquin Valley in the 1990s. Some dairies overflowed to adjacent Arizona and Nevada. Others moved to the Boardman area in Oregon, Twinfalls area in Idaho, Mesquite, Roswell-Lake Arthur-Artesia and Clovis-Portales in New Mexico, and the high plains including the Texas Panhandle and western Kansas. Western Kansas, blessed with vast space and groundwater from the Ogallala aquifer, is expected to become the dairy region of the next generation. However, mega-dairies cause air and water pollution in new location. The Environmental Protection Agency and local governments tend to regulate new confined animal feeding operations strictly, and dairies are no exception. If new space for relocation is not found, the remaining 200 dairies in the Chino Valley must establish new "dairy parks" in the near future to sustain their economic activities.