Drought-hit California farmers abandoning vegetable fields

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Drought-hit California farmers abandoning vegetable fields

Last Updated: Monday, January 26, 2009 | 10:48 AM ET

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The Associated Press

 

Consumers may pay more for spring lettuce and summer melons in grocery

stores now that California farmers have started abandoning their

fields in response to a crippling drought.

 

California's sweeping Central Valley grows most of the fruits and

vegetables in the United States in normal years, but this winter

thousands of hectares are turning to dust as the state hurtles into

the worst drought in nearly two decades.

 

Federal officials' recent announcement that the water supply they pump

through the nation's largest farm state would drop further was enough

to move John (Dusty) Giacone to forego growing vegetables so he can

save his share to drip-irrigate 400 hectares of almond trees.

 

" Taking water from a farmer is like taking a pipe from a plumber, "

said Giacone, a fourth-generation farmer in the tiny community of

Mendota. " How do you conduct business? "

 

The giants of California agribusiness are the biggest economic engine

in the valley, which produces every cantaloupe on store shelves in

summer months, and the bulk of the nation's lettuce crop each spring

and fall.

 

This year, officials in Fresno County predict farmers will only grow

around 2,400 hectares of lettuce, roughly half the area devoted to

growing greens in 2005.

 

That alone could cause a slight bump in consumer prices, unless

lettuce companies can make up for the shortage by growing in areas

with an abundant water supply, or the cost of cooling, packaging and

shipping the crop suddenly goes down, experts say.

 

" Lettuce comes off the field and goes straight into the market, and if

there's nothing coming off the field then the marketing chain goes

dry, and prices go up, " said Gary Lucier, an agricultural economist

with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.

Restricted flow to California also hits farmers

 

While the dry weather has exacerbated the problem, farmers' water woes

are not all drought-related.

 

Supplies for crops and cities also have been restricted by several

court decisions cutting back allocations that flow through a

freshwater estuary called the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the main

conduit that sends water to nearly two-thirds of Californians.

 

Environmental groups and federal scientists say the delta's massive

pumps are one of the factors pushing a native fish to the brink of

extinction. Last year, federal water deliveries were just 40 per cent

of the normal allocations, fallowing thousands of hectares and causing

nearly $309 million US in crop losses statewide.

 

That prompted California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to issue a

disaster declaration, ordering state water managers to expedite any

requests to move water around the state, in part so high-value crops

like wine grapes, almonds and pistachio trees would stand a chance of

surviving.

 

Federal reservoirs are now at their lowest level since 1992.

 

With such a grim outlook, many California farmers including Giacone

are investing millions to drill down hundreds of metres in search of

new water sources.

 

Depending on how much it rains this winter, federal water supplies

could be slashed down to nothing this year, forcing farmers to rely

solely on brackish well water. But the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

won't make an official decision until late February, said Ron

Milligan, the agency's Central Valley operations manager.

Concerns over possible job losses

 

The state's Department of Water Resources, which also ships farmers

water, has promised to deliver 15 per cent of the normal allocations

in October, but conditions are so dire that that's now in doubt, too.

 

" The consequences are expected to be pretty horrible in terms of

farmers' revenue, but what's really disconcerting are the possible job

losses, " said Wendy Martin, who leads the agency's drought division.

" Those communities that can least weather an economic downturn are

going to be some of the places that are hit the hardest. "

 

Richard Howitt, a professor of agriculture economics at the University

of California, Davis, estimates that $1.6 billion US in agriculture-

related wages, and as many as 60,000 jobs across the valley will be

lost in the coming months because of dwindling water.

 

Analysts haven't yet provided any estimates of crop losses this year.

But Bill Diedrich, an almond grower on the valley's parched western

edge, said he's already worried he may lose some of his nut trees in

the drought.

 

" The real story here is food security, " Diedrich told Milligan and

other officials speaking at a conference in Reno, Nev. " It's an

absolute emergency and anything to get water flowing quickly is

needed. "

 

In the meantime, the forecast appears to be worsening: meteorologists

are predicting a dry spring, and a new state survey shows the

population of threatened fish is at its lowest point in 42 years, more

imperiled than previously believed.

 

" This has devastating effects not only for the guys out there in the

fields with the weed whackers, but it affects the whole farming

industry, " said Thomas Nyberg, Fresno County's deputy agricultural

commissioner. " I'm just praying for rain. "

 

" Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we.

They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and

neither do we. "

--George W. Bush