- Author: Faith Kearns
Small farmers were hit hard by California's drought. Perhaps none as hard as the Hmong and other Southeast Asian farmers that lease small plots of land, often with declining groundwater levels, shallow wells, and outdated irrigation systems. Yet, many of these small farmers persist, growing an incredible variety of tropical and subtropical crops in California's temperate climate.
According to a 2007 survey, around 900 out of a total of 1400 Southeast Asian farms in Fresno County in California's Central Valley are Hmong. The Hmong largely arrived as refugees from Laos after government upheaval in the 1970's. For many, farming is part of who they are, despite the challenges.
And, the list of challenges for these...
- Author: Faith Kearns
Casey Walsh is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses in part on ways water, land, and labor have been organized to produce commodities in arid areas. He wrote a socioeconomic and cultural history, Building the Borderlands, of irrigated cotton agriculture in northeastern Mexico. This the second part of a conversation with Dr. Walsh, the first interview focused on his book
- Author: Faith Kearns
Casey Walsh is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses in part on ways water, land, and labor have been organized to produce commodities in arid areas. He wrote a socioeconomic and cultural history, Building the Borderlands, of irrigated cotton agriculture in northeastern Mexico. He has also been increasingly involved in the politics of groundwater management in California, which will be the subject of a second interview. This interview takes a deeper look at his newest book on the cultural, political, and economic dimensions...
- Author: Faith Kearns
Watering holes can be hard to come by in the high desert of northeastern California. Pronghorn, deer, cattle, and wild horses are all visitors to the springs and ponds scattered across the often dry grasslands. The number of wild horses has jumped quickly in recent years, bringing a host of water-related challenges, and no small amount of controversy.
Laura Snell, a livestock and natural resource advisor with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, knows the controversy well. She's been monitoring frequently visited water sources in the area for a couple of years. Her research shows that at times more than 70 percent of animal visits to springs are by wild horses, with...
- Author: Faith Kearns
For the majority of Californians, water appears effortlessly when and where you need it. It shows up in your faucet and flows out of your backyard hose with just the turn of a handle. And, it leaves just as predictably – rinsed down your kitchen sink drain, flushed down your toilet. However, the outgoing water is often full of things like fats, oils, and greases (also known as FOG waste) that can lead to problems in local sewer systems and beyond.
One of the biggest challenges in addressing FOG waste is rendering visible the largely invisible connection between household wastewater and city infrastructure. Claire Napawan, a...