Central Valley

More than half the fruits, vegetables and nuts grown in the U.S. come from California’s Central Valley. This project is about the strange beauty, the financial gravity, and the ecological precariousness of this place.

I stumbled on this orchard in bloom driving north from Los Angeles when my husband and I were searching for a charging station for our electric vehicle and lost signal from our GPS. We didn’t see a single person but we did see signs of human intervention: the perfectly straight rows of trees, the drip hoses, the carefully stacked beehive boxes, the field planted with flags noting the new saplings.

This world looks familiar but its beauty is off-kilter. Are we safe or in danger? Would you let your children play alone here? Who is in charge?