Harris Farms,

The Harris family’s commitment to agriculture spans over 100 years, four generations, and four states, from Mississippi to Texas, to Arizona, and eventually into California. The Fresno County farm has been under continuous family operation since 1937. Since its founding, Harris Farms has grown into one of the largest agribusinesses in the nation. In the late 1880s, the Harris family moved from Mississippi to Texas. In 1916 J.A. Harris and his wife, Kate, arrived in the Imperial Valley to establish one of California’s first cotton gins as well as other cotton-related businesses. They later farmed in the San Joaquin Valley in the 1920′ s and moved up to the Sacramento Valley where their only son, Jack Harris, graduated from Chico High School in 1932, prior to attending Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. In 1937, their only son, Jack, and his wife Teresa, began what is now known as Harris Farms, starting with a previously unfarmed 320 acres of desert land on the Valley’s Western edge. With vision and determination, Harris Farms has grown into the most integrated, diversified, and one of the largest agribusinesses in the United States. Beginning with cotton and grain, Harris Farms now produces over thirty-three crops annually, including lettuce, tomatoes, garlic, onions, melons, oranges, lemons, almonds, pistachios, and wine grapes.