Carlos Suarez began his tenure as State Conservationist for USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in California in January of 2013, but the Puerto Rico native still has the same level of enthusiasm for soil and water conservation as when he started his career in the early 1990’s as an unpaid volunteer and later as a soil conservationist in West Virginia.

The latest snapshot of California agriculture reveals that the 69,400 farms and ranches across the Golden State generated almost $50 billion in cash receipts from over 400 commodities.