California Über Alles: The Geography of Agricultural Suicide

The Efficiency Trap That Could Starve 330 Million People

Picture this: 25% of America’s food supply flows from 1% of its farmland. All in one valley. All in one state. Now imagine someone lights the fuse.

You don’t need a nuclear weapon to bring a nation to its knees. You just need patience, a basic understanding of agriculture, and the knowledge that we’ve built the world’s most efficient food system on the world’s most fragile foundation.

The Kill Switch We Built Ourselves

California’s Central Valley stretches 450 miles through the heart of the state. Drive down Interstate 5 and you’ll pass endless fields of lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli. This isn’t farmland. It’s a single point of failure disguised as pastoral abundance.

Ninety-two percent of America’s broccoli grows here. Over half our vegetables. Three-quarters of our fruits and nuts. When you open your refrigerator on the East Coast, you’re looking at California’s dirt, California’s water, California’s vulnerability.

The FBI knows it. Al Qaeda’s training manuals mentioned it. Federa…