Chapter 11, The Agricultural Core

As the agricultural core is in the Midwest we would think that the Bay Area would then be in the Far West, but it would be more considered as on the West Coast.  It is a term for the western states of the United States.  This would include California, Oregon, and Washington.  Alaska and Hawaii are also considered part of the West Coast because they border the Pacific Ocean.


The soils of the Agricultural Core is mollisols and alfisols.  Mollisols form in semi-arid and semi-humid areas, typically under a grassland cover.  Alfisols, like mollisols, also form in semi-arid and semi-humid areas, but under a hardwood forest cover.  The soil type in the Bay Area does not include these two types of soil.  The climate does not accomodate to help form them.  According to http://www.earthquake.usgs.gov/, there are 5 soil types in the Bay Area.  The information is based on ground shaking and the soft soils that amplify it.  The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) has defined the 5 soil types as A, B, C, D, and E and they include unweathered intrusive igneous rock, volcanics and Mesozoic bedrock, sandstone, mudstone, limestone, and artificial fill.

Farms in the Bay Area not a common site.  Because of the location of a big city surrounded by the suburbs, farmland can be found as far out as Dixon, CA (70 miles north of San Francisco).  As you drive north on Interstate 80 you pass farms that are plentiful in apples, mushrooms, and walnuts.

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