Still Here

In the last 50 years the Santa Clara Valley has changed from a landscape of apricots, plums, and pears to one dominated by office buildings of the high-tech industry. It has undergone a transformation form the Valley of the Hearts Delight to the Silicon Valley.  Still Here looks at the experience of the farmers as innovators who have been and are still farming in the valley. It asks them to describe the valley as it was, what it is like to farm now, and what their imaginations hold for the future. This piece calls into question what innovation means as it traces a history of rapid change. Interspersed are the names of varieties grown here whose names tell their own stories of place, change, and adaptation. Juxtaposed with the map of shrinking farmlands in Santa Clara County printed on the floor, this piece calls into question what change and innovation look like by illustrating changing landscapes and the uncertain future of agriculture in the Santa Clara Valley.