http://www.davisenterprise.com/forum/opinion-columns/many-reasons-to-celebrate-co-ops/ Yolo County, California Sat, 18 May 2013 07:46:44 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://www.davisenterprise.com/forum/opinion-columns/many-reasons-to-celebrate-co-ops/comment-page-1/#comment-395520 Rich Rifkin Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:06:32 +0000 http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=238336#comment-395520 “In 1920, Mr. Dargitz …” Correction, that should say 1910.

]]> http://www.davisenterprise.com/forum/opinion-columns/many-reasons-to-celebrate-co-ops/comment-page-1/#comment-395519 Rich Rifkin Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:04:49 +0000 http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=238336#comment-395519 “Founded in 1897 as the Davisville Almond Growers Association, Blue Diamond is headquartered in Sacramento and is the world’s largest tree nut producer, with more than 3,000 members throughout California.” There is a short online history of the founding of the Davisville Almond Growers Association, which you can read here. While it is true that the DAGA was the first almond growers co-op in California, it was not the case that the Davis growers “founded” the California Almond Growers Exchange. The person who formed the larger co-op (now Blue Diamond) was an almond grower from the Acampo area named J. P. Dargitz. In 1920, Mr. Dargitz convinced the growers from 9 existing local co-ops to join together as one under the California Almond Growers Exchange name (later re-named “Blue Diamond”). Those original growers included the Davis group; and all 9 together grew the majority of almonds in California at that time. … As an aside, acreage dedicated to almonds declined in this region after World War 2, when tomato canneries were established, and the automated tomato harvester was developed at UC Davis, making that a more profitable crop.

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