Remember the challenge -- what links Colton, the Salton Sea, or ? to East Asia. A teacher friend of mine working in El Centro just wrote to me to tell me that hay had become a big export to East Asia. So I looked and found some articles on the subject. Check them out - see how demand from East Asia affects people in the Imperial Valley, in the Coachella Valley, and in the Central Valley. Some of these exports are linked to ideas about health (what's the deal with walnuts?) and changing diets (people drinking more milk). You can certainly explore how diet affects life expectancy, disease patterns, and trade.
Here are articles about the hay:
http://articles.ivpressonline.com/2011-02-03/export-manager_27100465
http://www.agalert.com/story/?id=2449
http://hayandforage.com/hay/alfalfa/supply-shortfall-dims-hay-export-1103 (I like the attention to how dietary changes in China, more milk drinking and even cheese eating, are driving demand.) http://www.alfalfa.org/pdf/ExportHay.pdf
edited by Clay Dube on 8/4/2012
.
