Skip to main content
Voices of ACES Blog

A Californian Ag-venture

 Thomas Weger

I recently had the opportunity to travel to San Francisco over spring break as a part of my class ACE 199 Farm, Food, and Environmental Policy. This course focuses on agricultural policy issues in California, many of which are currently not concerns for farmers here in the Midwest. Many people, whether you grew up around agriculture or not, fail to realize that California is the largest agricultural state in the United States. In fact, if California were its own country, it would have the 7th largest economy in the world. Due to the massive presence California has on world agriculture, I decided to enroll in this class to learn more about farming that did not focus solely on cash and row crops. During our stay in San Francisco, our class met with many policy makers, farmers, and owners of new start-up agricultural companies. One of the highlights of the trip was getting to meet California Secretary of Agriculture Karen Ross. She was kind enough to tell us a little about her experiences growing up in agriculture and eventually working in the agriculture sector for over 30 years. This trip served as an incredible opportunity to network with industry professionals and also gave us the opportunity to experience first-hand how California grows over 400 different specialty crops. We had the opportunity to visit many different farming operations around the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valley areas that specialized in crops ranging from walnuts to premium wine grapes. Visiting Gallo Winery, the largest winery in the world, was also a definite highlight of the trip. I was very thankful for the opportunity that the ACE department in the College of ACES gave me to expand my knowledge about agriculture practices and policies that I had not previously been exposed to. This is just one example of the many opportunities for travel and personal development that the ACE department provides to its students every year!