Under siege

摘要

From New York to California, the best places to grow fruit are often the most desirable places to live, a conflict that is spawning crops of subdivisions. Oh yeah? Try telling that to Brent Holtz. Holtz grows almonds on 20 acres of land in Modesto,CA, that is quickly becoming surrounded by subdivisions. Located in the San Joaquin Valley about 90 miles east of San Francisco, the nation's most expensive housing market, the fertile region is attracting hordes of families eager to snap up affordable new homes. For Holtz, it means the soundtrack of his life features a steady back beat of hammering, as houses spring up around the orchard. But he's going to fight the good fight -- at least for now. "There's Still a right to farm in this county for people like me who want to hold out a little longer." Holtz is an unusual case, however. For one thing, he's a pomologist by profession, and works as a University of California farm adviser in nearby Madera County. Perhaps that was how he was able to resist when the real estate developers offered 100,000 dollar an acre -- that's right, a cool 2 million dollar. He plans to hang on to the old family homestead his grandfather purchased in the late 1930s, but for how long, even he's not sure.