Ain't what it used to be

This AP story says Hawaiian pineapple output has reached a new low.

Since the state began keeping records, fresh pineapple production and sales have never been as low as 2006, and this year won't likely see a reversal.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reports that production in 2006 was 188,000 tons, down 11% from 2005. That's about 13% of record 1955 production of 1.5 million tons.
From the story:

A total of 139,000 acres were being used to grow pineapples in Hawaii during 2006. But 100 acres fell out of pineapple production last year, the NASS reported.
The agency's numbers did not include 5,000 acres dropped by pineapple producer Del Monte in November, which will likely bring another drop to future local pineapple industry production numbers.
"It'll be down," said Mark Hudson, director of the NASS field office in Hawaii.

Another state that has concerns about dwindling agricultural output is Arizona, says this report from the Arizona Star. Don Butler, director of the state department of agriculture, sounded the alarm.

From the story:

Arizona lost 37 percent of its farmland between 1950 and 2000 to either residential, industrial or business uses, according to a 2003 report from Northern Arizona University's Center for Sustainable Environments. Asked what the state could do to keep agriculture strong in the long-run, Butler said, "I guess the easy answer would be to stop putting concrete down on good farmland." Butler said his department needs to do a better job of educating people about what agriculture adds to Arizona.
"People don't realize the effort, the capital and everything that goes into agriculture," he said. "It's much easier to go to Safeway or Bashas' or the rest."
The state is the nation's second-largest producer of head and leaf lettuce, spinach, cantaloupe, honeydew, broccoli and cauliflower.
He said another issue affecting Arizona growers is the availability of labor to work in the fields. Butler said he favors a program to bring in field workers from Mexico "because you don't have the work force in the United States that's willing to do it."

TK: The way it's going now, the couple celebrating their 25th anniversary will arrive in Hawaii, be greeted with a lei and a pineapple from Costa Rica. And retirees living in a new Arizona subdivision will go to a Safeway and not think twice about the field of carrots that used to be there.