Strawberries and lemons are the crops the world knows us for. They are not the exception. The economic return from every acre farmed here is collapsing across every major commodity group.
2025 is not an off year. UC Cooperative Extension's 2020 lemon study put net return at −$779 an acre — and found it cost growers $17.18 to produce a carton of Ventura lemons they were paid $16.42 for.
Net return per acre, historic baseline against 2025.
The 2025 Crop Report exposed a persistent and alarming trend. UC Davis data indicates the decline has been on-going for over a decade.
And preliminary 2026 data from growers indicates a further decline in net revenue per acre across at least three of the four commodity groups.
You haven't noticed the decline, because farmland has not disappeared. Growers continue to plant, work the fields and orchards, and harvest crops — for now.
This is an economics-of-the-acre story: the economic return from every acre farmed is collapsing.
We cannot wait until farmland comes out of production before listening to the warning of the economics underneath it.
Why is this happening? →