Favorable weather and abundant irrigation have made California the king of broccoli production for decades. But East Coast growers see a potential crack in the crown: drought.
California’s water struggles provide an opening for New York, Maine and other Eastern states to boost their own production of the green vegetable, which is growing in popularity across the country — even as climate change poses trouble for producers, according to researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
For years, Cornell has led a campaign to promote broccoli production in the region, including through improved plant genetics. Now, a paper by economists at the university backs the cause by laying out how supply chains could be fine-tuned to ensure locally grown broccoli is available on a large scale when the West turns dry.
California and Arizona, the nation’s second-largest broccoli producer, aren’t about to be unseated, researchers said, but regions in 10 Eastern states from Maine to Florida could fill some of the gap caused by drought if the region coordinates its efforts.
