Livermore could be seen as proof of how the last remnants of ranching culture that once thrived in this region have been pushed out to the edge of Alameda County. Or it might be an example of how a…
From certain places on Darrel Sweet’s ranch near Altamont Pass, the world looks no different than it did 150 years ago. Wildflowers blanket the hillside. A ranch dog named J.J. chases squirrels across a muddy dirt track. Cows stand near a cattle pond, looking out at a range of rolling hills that seem to act as a bulwark against time.
In the metropolitan Bay Area, Livermore stands out as a place where, as one long-time resident put it, you can find “a physicist, a rancher, and a gravel pit worker all sitting together at the bar”. “A lot of people still think of Livermore as a rural community,” said Jeff Kasky, a longtime resident and curator of Hagemann Ranch, a preserved five-acre property that has been in operation since the 1800s and is now surrounded by housing developments. “We’re kind of in that inflection space.”
But, like Livermore, they have become outliers. In the past 40 years, the nine-county Bay Area has lost more than 200,000 acres of agricultural land to development. Crop and animal production establishmentsThe torchbearers of Livermore’s agricultural heritage see the high school’s ag program as one of the keys to its preservation.
The program includes classes like agricultural biology and animal anatomy, as well as supervised agricultural experience. It’s not uncommon to find a student out walking his pigs at the farm after school. On weekends, students wake up early to care for their animals.
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