California screamin'

California’s ag crisis and our concentrated food system 10

droughtNot  many “green shoots” in the Central Valley. California’s severe drought—which could well be related to climate change—isn’t just menacing Los Angeles.

The drought has helped tip the state’s Central Valley, epicenter of U.S. fruit and vegetable production, into a severe crisis, The Wall Street Journal reports. Hammered by dry weather, the weak economy, and new restrictions on irrigation, the area’s vast farms are scaling down production and firing workers. The result is a full-on economic depression—one that falls hardest on the most vulnerable workers. From the Journal article:

“We either have money for gas and medicine, or food—not both,” Helen Hernandez, a 51-year-old mother of four, said after collecting a pallet of food from the relief drive. Ms. Hernandez said her husband, David, 49, has been out of work since losing his $1,200-a-month job at a tomato-packing house last year.

In a Wednesday editorial, the Journal’s right-wing editorial page blamed the situation on the federal government, which has restricted the diversion of water into the Central Valley to protect the coastal ecosystem to the west. Over the last several decades, water has regularly been diverted en masse from the area’s rivers to irrigate the Valley’s vast vegetable farms. As a reuslt, the amount of freshwater entering the coast had plunged—causing coastal fish populations to plunge as well. In response, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service imposed water reductions on the area—just as the drought was settling in.

For the Journal editorial page, the solution is simple—let the water flow freely into the Central Valley, fish be damned.

But should we really be sacrificing a once-robust, highly productive coastal ecosystem so that a few counties in California can go on supplying the entire nation with vegetables? (To see just how dependent we are on California for our veggies, see page 25 of this document [PDF]—or read my post on the topic from last spring.)

It’s hard to see why the Delta fishery should be allowed to die to save the Valley’s massive industrial farms. Moreover—this should register with the ultra-libertarians at the Journal editorial page—the diversion of irrigation water to Central Valley farmers has traditionally been subsidized to the tune of $100 million per year in taxpayer cash, according to Environmental Working Group.

I have lots of sympathy for the thousands of unemployed, struggling workers in the Central Valley. State and federal aid should flow their way. But the way forward is not a return to agribusiness as usual there. The Central Valley needs to diversify its economy in a way that works not only for area residents, but also for the surrounding ecosystem. (Besides industrial agriculture, the area’s other main industry was, until recently, construction—the very kind of sprawling development that is now itself mired in a deep crisis.)

As to the question of where we’re going to get vegetables as agriculture in the Central Valley withers, it’s time to get serious about rebuilding local and regional food production.

 

Grist food editor Tom Philpott farms and cooks at Maverick Farms, a sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Follow my Twitter feed; contact me at tphilpott[at]grist[dot]org.

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  1. Bud Dingler's avatar

    Bud Dingler Posted 6:29 pm
    02 Sep 2009

    Wonderful article, I would add that built into this notion that CA is going to feed America is low cost fuel to ship this stuff 365 days of the year. When diesel hits $8 a gallon those year around salad greens etc won't make any sense in May in the midwest. Niot that they do now anyhow...... 

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  2. Matt D Posted 8:03 pm
    02 Sep 2009

    You're really underestimating the water crisis (and politics) that California's been in for some time now.  It's not new and it hasn't been caused by climate change (at least not yet).  Agriculture's share of the water has been shrinking ever since the Southern California watershed was dammed to turn orange groves into housing developments decades ago. California's problem is that it has two of the biggest metropolitan areas in the country (surrounding by sprawling suburbs that refuse to stop attracting immigrants from back east) sitting on the edge of a massive desert. The delta issue, that you briefly refer to, is a tremendous controversy with heavily invested people on all three sides of it - the local NPR affiliates (KQED and KXJZ) seem to do several shows a year on the mythical "peripheral canal" alone. The delta smelt isn't going extinct because of cotton and almonds. It's going extinct because of San Francisco and L.A.  Cotton and almond farmers losing their farms is simply a consequence of urban expansion, like usual.

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  3. Anon92107 Posted 6:20 am
    03 Sep 2009

    This article is one more grave warning that documents the consequences of inaction by our scientific and political institutions which continue to prefer endentured servitude to "Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money." that President Eisenhower "gravely" warned us about in his 1961 Farewell Address to the Nation, instead of dedicating themselves to protecting and preserving humanity as their paramount priority.However, it's also time for We The People to follow Mother Jones' motto:  "Fight Like Hell For The Living" by putting Envonmental Protection at the top of our threat list and demand that our scientific and political institutions place Protection and Preservation of Humanity at the top of their action list, replacing their current dominant cultural values of greed and endentured servitude to the power of money.Meanwhile, environmental chaos in California from pollution, droughts and firestorms continues out of control in California, creating the new Central Valley Dustbowl.     

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  4. RickMorgs Posted 6:47 am
    03 Sep 2009

    We're running out of water!!?!Great.

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  5. juliejohns's avatar

    juliejohns Posted 8:32 am
    03 Sep 2009

    As the climate continues to change, stories like this are going to become more common. Global warming will bring more severe droughts and extreme weather conditions with which we will have to learn to adapt.

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  6. neosapiens's avatar

    neosapiens Posted 11:36 am
    03 Sep 2009

    We do indeed need for localities to become more self-sufficient--both in water use and in food production.  Transporting billions of gallons of water hundreds of miles across the state is unsustainable.  The world at large is still going to need food produced in places like California's Central Valley, so there is a place for some kind of agribusiness.  There is huge room for improvement in how farms manage water. Efficient irrigation and selection of less water-intensive crops is something that the government should help promote.The city where I live has desalination and ground water extraction, so we're not entirely dependent upon imported water.  We could do a whole lot better, though.  Property-owners need to pay attention to channelling rain water into the water table and not letting it run off into the Bay, so that we can get best use of the available ground water, and we have a long, long way to go in improving the way we use the water we have.The more self-sufficient localities become, the less strain there will be on state-wide resources like snow-melt runoff.

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  7. AlexCFS Posted 2:01 pm
    03 Sep 2009

    I was surprised when I read the WSJ article and the author attempted to reduce California's water woes down to the protection of an endangered fish species (they even added a picture to emphasize!). Obviously, it is far more complicated than a few environmental organizations fussing about the delta smelt. There are many other stakeholders involved who are complicating the situation. Snowpack is decreasing, drought is worsening, population is continuing to grow, agricultural needs are also expanding, delta recreationalists are putting up a stink, groundwater aquifers are being overdrawn for agricultural uses and in my opinion, the State Water Project needs to be seriously updated to accommodate for all these demands. The system is old and it is time to put some money into fixing the infrastructure, rather than trying to allocate the dwindling acre-feet through outdated dams, canals, pipes, and forebays. Blaming the entire scenario on the smelt showed a serious lack of research, and I appreciate it Tom that you at least mentioned a few of the other problems. Maybe it is time for Californians to consider building the long-debated peripheral canal, which would reduce the pressure on the delta, and make it easier for the state to transfer water south, to where most of the people and agriculture are. Just a thought- things are only going to become more difficult in the future from our rapidly changing climate.

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  8. dreamer Posted 7:44 pm
    03 Sep 2009

    Does anyone mention that we don't have a water problem -- we have a population growth problem.  Especially in California. There is no solution but birth control (voluntary, but supported and promoted) and immigration control.

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  9. Rev. Mr. Kt Posted 9:45 pm
    04 Sep 2009

    Dear Mr. Phillpott,                          I'm quite glad to see that young foks like yourself are taking an active interest in "the affairs of others." Sadly, it appears that your 'Kool-Aid' cup is empty, and you've taken the chosen non-'right wing' role of parroting the elected "Rulers" in their chosen role of 'non-answer' answers.The real point behind the continued economic persecution of Fresno (aka "NObama County") and surrounding areas is based not actually in true Conservationism, but out of raw, stinking political self service. The Valley is far from the only area of California that imports water from "far away."Los Angeles does, from as far away as Shasta and the Owens Valley, which has been turned from a productive agricultural area into simply more desert. San Francisco politicians crow about their "right" to Hetch Hetchy water, flowing from over 150 miles away, over faulted ground and under the Bay. Do you seriously consider that to be a sustainable practice? Perhaps if you spoke toward San Francisco about the infinitely more sustainable AND responsible actions of an offshore, Naval nuclear tech powered desalination plant for their "growing needs," I could find it within myself to take you more seriously.
    Still, perhaps I should be encouraged that you're actually awake and doing something more than playing Warcraft. Too bad, young feller,' I have to say, since your platitudes and 'right-wing' reference brands you clearly as another person with no answers.Please don't think me callous when I say that, "out here," we'd prefer to work and build dams for prosperity, rather than give in to our "Rulers" insistance that we surrender to deprivation and servitude.
    Regards, Rev. Mr. Kt
    "You never get closer by pushing away." - Me

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  10. bblunder Posted 3:44 pm
    05 Sep 2009

    @Alexcfs - agricultural needs of water are decreasing as growers are continually shifting away from water intensive, low value crops to low water, high value crops. Irrigations efficiencies have also improved. The amount of irrigated farm land has also decreased. Farmers aren't using more water - they are using less. @ Rev Mr. Kt. - right on about Phillpott. His lack of knowledge and wisdom is definately clear in his blogs. I just worry about his subscribers who think everything he says is correct. @ Bud - I agree - I wish we didn't have to produce so much food for the US and world. But then again, i can't complain since prices are up. Remember, though, that shipping produce via train/boat costs significantly less than by tractor-trailer. That is the way things will play out in the future - more transportation by boat and rail. For example, it is cheaper for a bottle of wine from australia to be shipped to New York than a bottle from Napa Valley by semi. And the keypoint about your salad comment is as follows: I dont sell the salad or drive demand for salad, I grow the salad. The consumer buys the salad and therefore is the responsible party for causing demand and shipments across the US. Dont buy salad in May, then we won't have a buyer in May, then we wont grow salad for may. Simple as that. Don't blame California Ag for consumer decisions in the Midwest.This whole water issue is way more complicated than the delta smelt. Lets also keep in mind that water policy was estabished during one of the wettest periods of California history. Things need to be re-done, but the politicians have no guts to do anything about it. Then again, how would we build a new canal, we have no money, the state is bankrupt and the rest of the US doesn't care.This is what I am doing to help save water/carbon emissions:Irrigate to match the needs of my crops through most efficient irrigation methods,Deficit irrigate crops at certain growth periods that do not dramatically affect growth/yield,Provide my neighbors some of my water if needed at low rates,Run electric pumps that are powered by solar power,Do not water my lawn (a lawn uses as much water as an acre of tomatoes),and irrigate during the night when evaporation is low - even though this increases the chances of disease.See everyone, us farmers don't just talk about making differences - we actually work to make a difference. Then again, according to Tom and one of his blogs, we are the scourge of the earth...  

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