Dusty fields in Fresno County

A day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was scolded in Fresno for not doing enough about this summer's farm-water shortages, he went to Mendota to issue yet another drought-related disaster declaration.

This one doesn't do much. It activates the California Disaster Assistance Act to help local government and nonprofits with food banks. It also waives the one-week waiting period to apply for jobless benefits.

But it gave the governor a chance to tramp around unplanted fields in the Central Valley, where drought and environmental restrictions have amped up the perennial "fish vs. farmers" rhetoric.

A statewide drought, coupled with pumping limits aimed at protecting crashing fish populations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, has drastically cut deliveries of federal irrigation water to farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley this summer.

Mendota has been a hotbed of protests, blaming its 39% unemployment rate on environmental laws.

But like many small valley farm towns, Mendota's jobs picture is never good -- even when there is plenty of water. In 2006 -- before the most recent delta pumping restrictions were imposed and when farms in the huge Westlands Water District next to Mendota got their full federal irrigation deliveries -- Mendota's unemployment rate was still 23%, the highest in Fresno County.

And as the Environmental Defense Fund recently pointed out, Westlands has largely made up for this year's delivery reductions by pumping groundwater, buying supplies from other districts and using water banked from previous years. With those sources, Westlands will have 86% of its normal supplies, according to state estimates.

Maybe Schwarzenegger should have gone to Imperial County, which has a higher overall jobless rate than Fresno County. But Imperial gets its water from the Colorado River. It would be tough to blame job woes there on delta protections.

--Bettina Boxall 

Photo: The governor walks across a field fallowed for lack of water outside Mendota. Credit: Peter Grigsby / Office of the Governor           

 

Comments

[Cliff Schaffer]

Oddly enough, legalization of marijuana would go a long way toward addressing this problem. Last year, the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting seized about 3 million plants with an estimated value of about $12 billion. California's total legal agricultural production is about $36 billion.

If we simply took the marijuana seized by CAMP and sold it through licensed, regulated distributors as we do with alcohol, we would boost California's total farm revenues by about one-third.

Currently, the trade is controlled by drug lords from Mexico, so all those billions go to criminals. Who do you trust to run this trade? Al Capone or Ernest and Julio Gallo?

It would also help with the water situation because it is a high-value product that doesn't take a lot of water to produce a good product. It doesn't require anywhere near the water that grapes require. The Central Valley farmers would make more money, even in times of drought.

There are tens of billions of dollars in income at stake here. Who do you want to get it? The criminals in Mexico, or the honest, tax-paying farmers of the Central Valley.

[mike]

still state is dumb.

[Mike B]

Farmers and their workers are in trouble now. They need water now. Most of the article is a straight news entry, until the last paragraph when you throw in cheap parting show. If you want to include personal opinion, how about some supporting facts. You need to associate jobs lost to lost farm production. So Imperial pumps from a different source. What is that current pumping level compared to past? How many farm acres are out of production? From your article, how can I know if Imperial just lost a big industrial plant that is accounting for the job loss.

[Nancy Zierenberg]

RE: drought in Calif.
Does anyone remember the campaign to reduce our population? What happened to that? It's so very obvious that over-population is the root cause of all our environmental woes. Quit pinning fish vs. farmers! That's a load of crap. If fish are not healthy, we aren't either. That day is fast approaching. Quit having children! Allow old people to die in dignity!

[David A. Bainbridge]

This is no surprise and is hardly news. I gave a talk at the Anneberg School of Communication in 2002 entitled "Sustainable Agriculture? in California. It is clear now as it was then that current practices are not sustainable or desirable. Most are propped up with federal and state subsidies that we can no longer afford.

Its all about the money. See Rebuilding the American Economy at www.sustainabilityleader.org.