California: where agriculture and science meet

California State Capital Building (Photo: Saim Orhan)

traveling along the long roads in California, I see vast areas of agricultural fields.

A wide range of crops are harvested in these fields; for instance, garlic is abundantly produced in Gilroy, known as the garlic capital of the world. I pay a visit to a walnut orchard in Linden. Agriculture is very popular in this state. The US is the largest exporter of walnuts, peanuts and almonds in the world, producing 80 percent of the entire almond crop in the world and 45 percent of walnuts. Nearly 1 million tons of almonds are produced in the US every year. The amount of walnuts harvested is 550,000 tons. These figures remind us about something that is often unknown about the US: It is one of the world's most important agricultural producers.

Agriculture is the locomotive of the economy in California; even in times of global economic crisis, the agriculture sector in this state has remained productive because agriculture is carried out based on scientific methods. As a result, agriculture has played a huge role in these difficult times, helping the American economy. The annual contribution of agriculture to the national economy is around $37.5 billion. Departments of agriculture are actively involved in training farmers. This is why the sector is productive. Like many other countries in the world, Turkey also buys almonds and walnuts as well as grain products from California. Turkey consumes 80,000 tons of walnuts and 50,000 tons of almonds every year. California supplies 30 percent of Turkey's walnuts and 60 percent of its almonds.

Along the way, we see an almond field where the trees have been uprooted. Almond trees are no longer productive after 25 years. For this reason, they are uprooted and new ones are planted. The uprooted trees are sold for wood for the fireplace. Three hundred kilograms of almond wood is sold for $100. I then paid a visit to Ulaş Turkhan, who owns walnut and almond processing facilities and engages in agricultural activities in this state. He gave us a tour of the facilities.

We started from the section where the almonds are shelled. Seeing such successful businessmen make us happy, witnessing that great efforts lead to great achievements. The almonds are divided into different categories and made ready for exportation. They export to 35 countries including China, South Korea, Germany, Italy, France, Britain and Turkey. The total annual amount of their exports is $150 million.

Almond processing facilities

Walnut facility

Visiting the walnut facility

Then we moved to the walnut facility, also owned by Turkhan. People are working uninterruptedly here, too. They separate walnuts by their quality. Turkhan tells me that Turkey is one of their customers. Some countries prefer unshelled products, whereas others want raw ones. The unshelled products are analyzed carefully under a laser processor. The workers carefully separate the poor quality products in the final stage of the process. After all this is done, the oil is extracted and the remainder is used as animal feed.

We now move to Sacramento, the capital city of the state of California. One of its famous buildings is city hall. The city's famous Tower Bridge was opened in 1935. We also see The Ziggurat in the city of West Sacramento; its pyramidal shape stands out in the city. One thing that is forbidden in Sacramento is to drink alcohol walking alongside the river.

Monterey

Now we are walking on the famous Monterey shores, where boat tours are organized to see whales. It is not necessary to go far from the shore to see them. People have the opportunity to experience the life of the whales on these fantastic tours. Visitors are given information on the lives and habitats of whales during the trip. It is good to hear that it is possible to see whales all year round. People are taking tours to see whales here. If they are lucky enough, the visitors are able to see the whales moving their huge bodies and the moments they feed themselves. Sometimes whales come quite close and lift their heads up to see what is inside the boat. It is like they are posing for you. At that moment, people become breathless because the whales are strong enough to sink the boat. Interestingly, whales come so close to the shore that they can be seen by people standing there.

We see people along the shore paragliding; professional athletes who perform this sport enjoy the weather and the exciting moments.

Tower Bridge

Quick facts

Capital: Washington, D.C.
Ethnic groups: White (79.96 percent), black (12.85 percent), Asian (4.43 percent), Amerindian and Alaska native (0.97 percent), native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander (0.18 percent), two or more races (1.61 percent) (July 2007 estimate)
Languages: English (82.1 percent), Spanish (10.7 percent), other Indo-European (3.8 percent), Asian and Pacific Island (2.7 percent), other (0.7 percent) (2000 census)
Government: Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition
Chief of state: President Barack H. Obama (since Jan. 20, 2009); Vice President Joseph R. Biden (since Jan. 20, 2009). Note: President is both chief of state and head of government
Area: 9,826,675 square kilometers
Population: 318,892,103 (July 2014 est.)
Gross domestic product (GDP): $16.72 trillion (2013 est.)
Religions: Protestant (51.3 percent), Roman Catholic (23.9 percent), Mormon (1.7 percent), other Christian (1.6 percent), Jewish (1.7 percent), Buddhist (0.7 percent), Muslim (0.6 percent), other or unspecified (2.5 percent), unaffiliated (12.1 percent), none (4 percent) (2007 est.)