As much of the Western US suffers from a
historic drought, all eyes have shifted to Californian farmers as hundreds of thousands of acres become fallow in a state responsible for a tremendous amount of US food production.
Unprecedented cuts to water supplies are jeopardizing the future of growing for many farmers. Drought conditions are worsening, making it harder for farmers to irrigate crops.
As fields dry up and farm production drops, Josue Medellin-Azuara, an associate professor at the University of California Merced, told
Bloomberg that
800,000 acres of farmland could be unworked this year, more than double the acreage last year.
Medellin-Azuara said the figure is preliminary as satellite imaging of California cropland continues to be examined. He anticipates official estimates by the end of this month or early August.
Just like that, multi-year,
multi-decade investments in farm production have been wiped out over new water restrictions. Much of the fallow land is in California's Central Valley, which produces more than half of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in the US.
Farmers that remain in operation are seeing sharp reductions in surface water rights due to low snowmelt and dwindling storage from last year.
"What's really concerning is for the first time we are fallowing at least 250,000 acres in the Sacramento Valley ... those are the most senior water rights holders," Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said in an interview.
Medellin-Azuara said the new water restrictions are a complicated issue:
Last year, some California farmers were stunned to find their so-called senior water rights restricted. Water laws in the state are governed by a complex system that dates back to the Gold Rush era. Senior rights holders -- which include companies, growers and cities with claims that were acquired before 1914, and landowners whose property borders a river -- are the last to see their supplies curtailed. -Bloomberg
California's most productive agricultural region is turning into dust, which should concern every American.
As a reminder, California produces a quarter of the nation's food -- shrinking crop output is more alarming news that reveals food inflation is becoming structural and won't abate anytime soon.
Comment: The MSM makes it appear as this is due to global warming, yet the huge reservoirs in California were built because years with little rain and snowmelt were known in the past. In 2019 California was officially out of the drought and all the reservoirs were full with enough water to last 5 dry years. An article from 2021 gives some to the explanation:
Engdahl: A sinister agenda behind the California water crisis?
The Green lobby is asserting, while presenting no factual evidence, that Global Warming, i.e. increased CO2 manmade emission, is causing the drought. The NOAA examined the case and found no evidence. But the media repeats the narrative to advance the Green New Deal agenda with frightening statements such as claiming the drought is, "comparable to the worst mega-droughts since 800 CE."
After 2011, California underwent a severe seven year drought. The drought ended in 2019 as major rains filled the California reservoir system to capacity. According to state water experts the reservoirs held enough water to easily endure at least a five-year drought. Yet two years later, the administration of Governor Newsom is declaring a new drought and threatening emergency measures. What his Administration is not saying is that the State Water Board and relevant state water authorities have been deliberately letting water flow into the Pacific Ocean. Why? They say to save two endangered fish species that are all but extinct — one, a rare type of Salmon, the second a Delta Smelt, a tiny minnow-size fish of some 2" size which has all but disappeared.
[...]
Allegedly to "save" these fish varieties, during just 14 days in May, according to Kristi Diener, a California water expert and farmer, "90% of (Bay Area) Delta inflow went to sea. It's equal to a year's supply of water for 1 million people." Diener has been warning repeatedly in recent years that water is unnecessarily being let out to sea as the state faces a normal dry year. She asks, "Should we be having water shortages in the start of our second dry year? No. Our reservoirs were designed to provide a steady five year supply for all users, and were filled to the top in June 2019."
[...]
Appointed by green Gov. Jerry Brown as chair of the State Water Board in 2018, Marcus is directly responsible for the draining of the reservoirs into the ocean after they filled in 2019, using the claim of protecting endangered species. In March 2021 with Marcus as attorney, the NRDC requested that the State Water Resources Control Board Marcus headed until recently, take "immediate action" to address perceived threats to listed salmon in the Sacramento River watershed from Central Valley Project ("CVP") operations. This as the state is facing a new drought emergency?
In 2020 Gov. Gavin Newsom, a protégé of Jerry Brown, signed Senate Bill 1, the California Environmental, Public Health and Workers Defense Act, which would send billions of gallons of water out to the Pacific Ocean, ostensibly to save more fish. It was a cover for manufacturing the present water crisis and specifically attacking farming, as incredible as it may seem.
The Globe in
an article from August 2021 wrote:
It was only in April when California Gov. Gavin Newsom held a press event in Oroville, with a 60% empty Oroville Dam Reservoir as his backdrop, and said he was not ready to declare an official drought emergency - despite that the previous two weeks 91% of Delta inflow went to the sea, state pumps were at -97%, federal pumps at -85%, and outflows showed 6,060,828,600 gallons. Since April, Oroville has been drained almost dry.
[...]
People forget the winter of 2019 brought 200 percent of average rains and snow pack. The state's reservoirs held enough water for 5 to 7 years. Yet the state still held back on water to farmers, and residents faced rationing, the Globe reported May 2019, proving that water in California is a political football.
[...]
"Lake Oroville was at full capacity two years ago, as well as in 2017," said LaMalfa. "This dam was designed to provide water and power through five years of drought. Governor Newsom's administration mismanaged and wasted so much water that Oroville ran out of water in just a year and half. Throughout the winter and spring, the state let water out of the lake, ignoring that we were in a drought. The government has used our water for its pet projects like the delta smelt, a fish no one has found a single one of in over three years. Yet families and farms have seen dramatic cutbacks in their water availability. Mismanagement of our water means we lose 450 megawatts of power, recreation, drinking water, water for farms and water for fall run salmon. Everybody loses because of the states wasteful management," LaMalfa said.
Comment: The MSM makes it appear as this is due to global warming, yet the huge reservoirs in California were built because years with little rain and snowmelt were known in the past. In 2019 California was officially out of the drought and all the reservoirs were full with enough water to last 5 dry years. An article from 2021 gives some to the explanation:
Engdahl: A sinister agenda behind the California water crisis? [...] [...] The Globe in an article from August 2021 wrote: [...] [...]