- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
An article in USA Today yesterday pinned 30 percent of the blame for California's drought on the federal government. The other 70 percent is assigned to Mother Nature.
Court and regulatory rulings protecting endangered fish have cut water allocations to irrigated agriculture, compounding a natural dry spell, the story said."This is a regulatory drought, is what it is," the story quoted Firebaugh farmer Todd Alen. "It just doesn't seem fair."
UC Davis ag economist Richard Howitt told the reporter that federal regulations hit particularly hard in the Valley because complicated water-rights laws put farmers at the end of the line in water...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Californian of southern Riverside County covered the concerns of farmers over water cutbacks. Reporter Jeff Rowe said farmers are turning to science and ingenuity to try to save county agriculture - and help keep food prices down.
The story highlighted one farmer who plans to use water absorbing polymers on a watermelon farm and another farmer who is working to secure grants to build a plant to extract salts from water discharged from sewage-treatment plants.
For the story, Rowe spoke to UC Riverside Cooperative Extension vegetable crops specialist Milt McGiffen about the possibility of...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
While there have been whispers of skepticism about the Great California Drought of 2009, all would likely agree that California's water woes are complicated. The Wall Street Journal today ran a story outlining the decision process for farmers considering whether they should use the water allocated to them to grow crops, or whether they should sell the water to the state and let their land lie fallow.
Writer Pete Sanders penciled out the equation for Don Bransford, who grows rice on a 700-acre farm north of Sacramento:
- The state is offering $275 per acre foot of water
- Take 100 acres of his farm out of...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Dought continues to be a hot topic. The international news wire Reuters moved a story today about the California drought, which was picked up as far away as New Zealand. The story quoted "state officials" as saying the farming cutbacks because of the drought will cost as many as 95,000 agricultural jobs.
California rainfall and snowfall have been below average for three years, but some people are calling the 2009 crisis a man-made drought because of restrictions on the amount of water that can be pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect the delta smelt,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Cooperative Extension director for Tulare County Jim Sullins says a "Perfect Storm" brewing in the San Joaquin Valley is turning the coming spring and summer into a time of uncertainty and challenge about water, according to an article in the Porterville Recorder.
The convergence of three years of below average rain and snowfall with recent court decisions about the fate of water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is just one of farmers' concerns.
“It’s almost a perfect storm situation. We have low commodity prices, the economic situation and now the...