California Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross joined members of the public, citrus farmers and food bank advocates today at the State Capitol to celebrate the third annual Citrus Stride – a one mile walk around Capitol Park to raise awareness about hunger and celebrate the positive impact that citrus has on the health, economy, and environment of California.
For each participant who registered for Citrus Stride, California Citrus Mutual growers pledged to donate 1,000 pounds of citrus to California food banks.
In California, the first recorded citrus orchard was planted in 1804 at the San Gabriel mission, east of Los Angeles. Over 200 years later, the production value of California’s citrus industry is now worth more than $2 billion, with over 3,000 growers farming 270,000 acres.