Red and Green Lettuce Farming
by Robert Bales
Title
Red and Green Lettuce Farming
Artist
Robert Bales
Medium
Photograph - Photo
Description
A view of a field of red and green winter lettuce found near Yuma, Arizona!
The Yuma area produces over 90 percent of the winter lettuce for the United States.
Tucked away in the very southwest corner of Arizona, you will find sunshine, clean air, majestic vistas, and beautiful rows of fresh lettuce. Yuma lies in the Sonora Desert, framed by rugged mountains, irrigated by the Colorado River, and flooded with sunshine almost every day of the year. Known as the Winter Lettuce Capital of the World, Yuma produces the majority of the fresh lettuces you eat during the winter.
Now, of the 230,000 acres of land utilized for agriculture in Yuma County, 100 per cent are irrigated with Colorado River water delivered by one of the county's seven irrigation districts. Every single field in the county is also laser-leveled and graded using GPS technology, making Yuma's irrigation network one of the most efficient in the world.
All this has made Yuma County first in the state - and THIRD IN THE NATION - for vegetable production. In fact, about 90 percent of all the leafy vegetables grown in the U.S. from November through March are grown in and around the Yuma area.
To put this in perspective, the Yuma area is home to nine salad plants that produce bagged lettuce and salad mixes. During peak production months, each of those plants processes more than two million pounds of lettuce per day.
Uploaded
January 13th, 2020
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