California farmers won't get federal water
Source: Associated Press
Federal officials announced Friday that without a lot more rain and snow many California farmers caught in the state's drought can expect to receive no irrigation water this year from a vast system of rivers, canals and reservoirs interlacing the state.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released its first outlook of the year, saying that the agency will continue to monitor rain and snow fall, but the grim levels so far prove that the state is in the throes of one of its driest periods in recorded history.
Unless the year turns wet, many farmers can expect to receive no water from the federally run Central Valley Project. Central Valley farmers received only 20 percent of their normal water allotment last year and were expecting this year's bad news. Some communities and endangered wildlife that rely on the federal water source will also suffer deep cuts.
"We will monitor the hydrology as the water year progresses and continue to look for opportunities to exercise operational flexibility," Reclamation Commissioner Michael L. Connor said in a written statement, noting that the state's snowpack is at 29 percent of average for this time of year.
Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/02/21/3783038/california-farmers-brace-for-little.html
hunter
(38,349 posts)Berlum
(7,044 posts)Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)If you have fields with any perennials, (grapes, stone fruit, citrus, etc.), what do you think happens to plants/trees that go without water for months at a time? They die and a farm without live plants/trees means the farmer has just lost his/her entire investment and livelihood. To replant could mean hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars and that will be out of reach for most small to mid-sized farmers.
hunter
(38,349 posts)And they are not the ones who gambled on water and lost.
People lose their jobs all of the time. It would be awesome if there was a safety net for everyone, but there's not, especially not for the undocumented workers.
The rotten thing all along has been the way small farms are consolidated into much larger farms, squeezing the smaller farmers out, and transferring their assets to the mega-corporate farmers.
Climate change may accelerate this process.
I've got ZERO sympathy for giant agricultural and banking corporations hiding behind smaller farmers.
In California's Central Valley some of the corporate giants, especially those on toxic land irrigated with subsidized water, simply ought to be shut down. Let the owners stand in line for food stamps with all their former workers.
Maybe things would change then and we'd get some kind of New Deal out of it.
But that's not what will happen. The big money players will simply move away to trash some other place, unharmed by the human and environmental catastrophes they created.
Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)$44.7 billion into the state. It's the #1 way the state earns money. To completely dismiss this type of loss as "people lose their jobs all of the time" is nothing short of mind-boggling. The losses aren't just confined to "those people" who you seem to determine are below contempt and, therefore, deserve what they get, the entire STATE loses. The NATION loses because those are numbers on the plus side of Trade.
The figure above represents California's 80,500 farms. There are still MANY small to medium-sized farms and many of them are family-owned. An integral part of farming has ALWAYS been "who gambled on water and lost." It's inherent in the occupation. You speak as if it's an indictment.
You spew the typical Bay Area bile about this area and it's practices that seems to be so common with people having absolutely NO knowledge of the subject except what you read in articles from publications 5,000 miles away.
These are losses that will be innumerable and the fact that you're dismissing all of it with some sort of elitist neo-liberal bullshit turns my stomach. And here I thought throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater mentality was limited to the conservative agenda. I see I was in error.
hunter
(38,349 posts)I live in the middle of big ag, that's where the money and income in our household originates. There are roads around here with my family names on them.
And I say this in spite of the nose on my face.
The people who created this catastrophe will not suffer, they will fly away to greener pastures.
The ordinary middle class will suffer ordinary middle class fates, foreclosures and such.
The farm workers, especially undocumented farm workers, many who have been working here in California for many years, they are just out of luck.
It's a scary thing. We need to set up a system for recycling and relocating entire communities because things are only going to get worse, especially as the oceans rise.
How do we gracefully abandon what we've built in ways that are least harmful to those who have little or nothing, and least harmful to what remains of our natural environment?
Or is it just going to be disaster after disaster, over and over again, a wretched process of gentrification and the exile of people who have nothing left, ongoing until our society breaks down entirely?
There are places all over the world, and here in California, that will have to be abandoned.
The shit's getting real.
Bennyboy
(10,440 posts)They just won't be coming up here this year. And you can follow a steady decline in border crossing, both legal and illegal since this started.
Loaded Liberal Dem
(230 posts)Three cities who have no right being where they are.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)much of Florida. They cleared swamps to build a lot of Florida, and the swamps and their water is just waiting to take back what Floridians stole from them.
On edit, Southern California where Los Angeles is located is pretty close to a desert. I changed my front yard to suit the realitylast Fall. It looks great in this dry weather. It's the farmers in the Central Valley north of us who are in really bad shape.
The unfortunate thing is that we don't put a moratorium on the building of new housing in the state until we find water.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)much of Florida. "
You say that like that's a bad thing.........
handmade34
(22,759 posts)http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2014/02/trading-water-for-fuel-is-fracking-crazy/
"It would be difficult to live without oil and gas. But it would be impossible to live without water. Yet, in our mad rush to extract and sell every drop of gas and oil as quickly as possible, were trading precious water for fossil fuels.
A recent report, Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Stress, shows the severity of the problem. Alberta and B.C. are among eight North American regions examined in the study by Ceres, a U.S.-based nonprofit advocating for sustainability leadership."
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)Unfortunately, we all know that won't happen. Neither will there be a moratorium on diverting much of the region's water supply to the growing of thirsty crops like alfalfa, which are shipped directly to China.
Bennyboy
(10,440 posts)already...
MindMover
(5,016 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,498 posts)If we bored a tunnel into the Sierra and tapped Lake Tahoe we'd be on Easy Street. Hell, we could even make a shitload of electricity in the process, too.
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)And how would you supply the truckee and carson rivers?
Brother Buzz
(36,498 posts)and let the race begin. Lake Tahoe holds over four time as much water as Lake Mead.
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)Pretty callous.
Brother Buzz
(36,498 posts)All they have to do is sit back and watch the salinity of Pyramid Lake drop while powers-that-be race to drain Lake Tahoe.
It's a win-win for the wily Paiutes
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)And the more you talk the more convinced you are that your ignorance offers a superiorsolution to tge drought than anyone working to protect cities, tribes, wildlife and ecology.
Not my brother.
Brother Buzz
(36,498 posts)I first heard this bombastic idea from a 'change jingler' back during the drought of 1976.
Earth_First
(14,910 posts)proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)18 February 2014 Last updated at 19:40 ET
California drought: Why farmers are 'exporting water' to China
By Alastair Leithead
BBC News, Los Angeles
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)sendero
(28,552 posts).... I heard a radio segment a few days ago in which a farmer blamed some endangered smelt for his problems. "why do we reserve water for fish when people need it"? he asked.
"people" don't need it. who needs it are farmers who are trying to grow food in places that don't have natural water supplies. they are not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts they do it for profit. and they don't care to pay the actual cost for the water they use quite profligately.
everyone has known for decades that the way water is used for California farming is unsustainable. the point of no sustain has been reached. find another place to grow stuff.
Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)Misleading. Here's the actual quote:
""A hundred billion gallons of water per year is being exported in the form of alfalfa from California," argues Professor Robert Glennon from Arizona College of Law.
We're exporting crops which we've done for decades. It's how California makes most of its money -- agricultural exports. Nothing new here.
Redfairen
(1,276 posts)It goes out to sea. Bye-bye water, gone to another place in the world. You can make this sort of pointless argument about nearly any use of water. Heaven forbid, we ever try to manage it well in the first place. Oh no, no, no, that's politically impossible.
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)Last edited Sat Feb 22, 2014, 06:16 PM - Edit history (1)
I'm not informed on the subject personally and made no assertions whatsoever. Your post belongs as a comment at the BBC website, not as a response directed at me. Crowdsourcing and critiquing information can be accomplished without animosity.
Redfairen
(1,276 posts)I was commenting on the nonsense of the argument within the link. I could've said it better.
That said, I'm not going to go post on evey site that offers an argument deserving of a response, as you suggested. There are too many of them out there. It's entirely appropriate to respond here if it's linked here. Otherwise, why link it? Thank you for postin, all the same.
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)Garion_55
(1,915 posts)we had maybe late 80s? and the big discussion was about desalination plants. dont think it ever went anywhere. too bad maybe if they had spent the last 20 years building them, drought wouldnt be an issue.
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)Nobody's gping to irrigate with mucho pricey reverse osmosis water.
Tumbulu
(6,292 posts)And so we are all wondering what to do. The groundwater table has been dropping, there is a 8 month wait list with the well drillers....I had a plan to put certain crops in this year, but now do not plan on planting anything just so that I will have water for my sheep to drink (but what will they eat?). All the other farmers are trying to figure out how to save permanent crops like trees and vines and perennials that took a lot of money to establish...and we are all hoping for just a few more big rainstorms. We are 1/3 of normal now, three weeks ago we were at less than 10% of normal after two really dry years.
All the grass fed ranchers are having to cull their herds by at least 50% because there is no grass for the animals to eat. Overstocking will ruin the soil. And with the water being cut there will be very little alfalfa or other feeds available for the animals even if we had the money to buy feed.
Those of us doing organic and sustainable do not just go and buy animals when things get better, we breed and select our animals for suitability to the soil and the lands our animals inhabit.
it is a scary time for us.
CrawlingChaos
(1,893 posts)Bennyboy
(10,440 posts)Todays_Illusion
(1,209 posts)But there is another big water user in Kern County the oil industry. In spite of the dwindling production from its aging oilfields, Kern County still accounts for 10 percent of U.S. domestic oil production. While occupying a far smaller land footprint than the countys agricultural users, the Kern County oil industry consumes a staggering volume of water. According to the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, Kern County oil companies injected 1.3 billion barrels of water and steam into the ground in order to produce 162 million barrels of oil a year.
http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2010/world/california-drought-is-no-problem-for-kern-county-oil-producers/
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)The drying of the West
Drought is forcing westerners to consider wasting less water
Feb 22nd 2014 | LAKE MEAD, NEVADA | From the print edition
Drought: Feds cut water to Central Valley farmers to zero
Kurtis Alexander
Updated 6:39 am, Saturday, February 22, 2014
via http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org via Twitter.
ghoti
(4 posts)one of my college professors predicted that the next American civil war will be over water.