Cabbage an unsung hero of New York agriculture

May 05, 2015

Empire State ranks in top three of national production

People in New York and around the USA are eating cabbage and it’s proving to be an important part of the state’s agriculture.

“New York is well known for its maple syrup, its dairy products, its apples and its farm-based beverages, but the cabbage industry here is huge and it sometimes doesn’t get nearly the recognition it deserves,” said Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball. “As a grower, cabbage is one of my favorite vegetables to grow. The value-added products that are produced by New York cabbages can be seen on tables across the globe throughout the year.”

Commissioner Ball used some stats to further his complimenting of cabbage.

Green and purple cabbage

In 2014, the state harvested around 8,300 acres of cabbage valued at more than $72 million. Cabbage is responsible for more than a fifth of New York’s entire vegetable industry.

What makes New York a good place to grow cabbage is the cooler climate of the Finger Lakes region and Western NY.

“Our region tends to stay cooler in the summertime with a fair amount of natural rainfall, which cabbage tends to soak up pretty well,” said Eric Hansen, Co-owner of Hansen Family Farms which farms around 700 acres of cabbage. “We start harvesting in July and we don’t stop until the end of the fall.”

The top producing cabbage states in America according to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center are California, New York and Florida.

The 2010 Agricultural Statistics Manual suggests those three states produced 12 million cwt (hundredweight) of cabbage, equal to 53% of the entire cabbage crop for 2009.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.