Food & Agriculture

For as easy as it can be to pass off rural places as disconnected from the day-to-day of big cities, Craig Reynolds can help people understand how close the link is between the dinner table and the fields of Yolo County, California.

“We grow everything. We’re the world food basket, right here, where you are," Reynolds said.

Reynolds is the director of the California Agave Council, a new trade organization made up of growers and distillers.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For some, the loud sound of a blade being sharpened might be jarring. For Craig Reynolds, it’s the sound of untold potential in commercial farming of agave in California — the plant Tequila is made from.

After doing work on California water policy and growing agave in Mexico 16 years ago, Craig began to experiment with the idea of agave successfully being farmed in the sunshine state in 2014.

Raul “Reppo” Chavez surveys his agave crop on a sunny morning north of Sacramento, California. His largest plants sit at the top of a hillside, while the youngest and smallest are down by the road. “They look real good,” he says, nodding.

On a sunlit afternoon in 2021, a Honda hauling a long, white rowboat pulled into a truck stop as its windshield filled with a sapphire mirage of Mono Lake, the water pinched between jagged mountains and bright blue skies. 

As drought conditions affect crops, farmers in California are turning to growing agave. The plant, traditionally grown in Mexico and used for making tequila, is able to grow with nearly no water, although it does take time before it is ready to harvest. KOVR reporter Elizabeth Klinge has more. Air Date: Oct 8, 2022

Watch here: https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/Lbx976ymyZWavBu6i3_3LiKmfO4q1WCX/

Agriculture in California faces an uncertain future as drought, wildfires and other climate extremes become more commonplace in the West. But a fledgling industry focused on growing and distilling agave plants, which are used to produce tequila and mezcal in Mexico, could be California’s answer to fallowed fields and a lack of water.