No matter what you think of the Golden State, Hollywood, Gavin Newsom, and avocado toast, you can thank California for the produce, nuts, and dairy you eat every day and for at least some of your beef, too. Of all the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in America, around half are grown on California's 10 million acres of agricultural land.
According to the L.A. Times, some of the crops grown in California don't really grow anywhere else in America — things like kiwis, figs, pomegranates, almonds, and artichokes are Golden State exclusives. And where does California get all that water? Well, a large portion of it originates in the northern part of the state and gets piped down to central California via the 444-mile-long California Aqueduct. According to Maven's Notebook, the Aqueduct is part of the State Water Project, which irrigates 750,000 of California's 10 million acres of farmland and provides drinking water to 23 million people.
There are other aqueducts, too, all faithfully bringing water to California's farms and people, but three of the biggest — including the California Aqueduct — cross the San Andreas fault. In fact they cross the fault 32 times, so if there is ever a major earthquake, it could potentially cut off water for more than half the people who live in California and to hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland. Hope you don't like artichokes.
