Tag Archive for: Agriculture

Kern County Farmers Say Water Infrastructure is Needed to Curb Drought

/in , , /by /Spectrum News 1 (Los Angeles)by Sarah Pilla

On Aug. 3, the State Water Resources Control Board completely eliminated 2021’s surface water supplies for farms in much of the state. It has impacted farmers like John Moore III, who grows pistachios at Moore Farms in Arvin.

“We’ve got about 100 acres of pistachios, 200 of almonds and everything else goes to open farmland, carrots, potatoes and we have a small block of citrus as well that goes to both domestic and export buyers,” said Moore

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Central Valley Farmers Weigh in on California’s Historic Drought

/in , , /by /KQEDby Amanda Stupi

Unless you have a personal connection to the Central Valley or work in agriculture, chances are you haven’t been able to speak directly to a farmer about how they’re experiencing this year’s historic drought.

Recently on  KQED Forum, three farmers from the Central Valley, where roughly 40% of the nation’s fruits, vegetables and nuts are grown, shared just how little water they have to work with, how they’re adapting, and what the drought means for their industry long term.

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Torture Orchard: Can Science Transform California Crops to Cope with Drought?

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Julie Cart

There’s a hive of PhDs at the University of California at Davis who are working to reinvent food production in the Golden State. Researchers have fanned out across the globe collecting rare plant samples; others are grafting Frankenstein trees and stitching together root systems of plums and peaches to create better almond and walnut trees.

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Opinion: A Coachella Valley Date Farmer on What Happens When We Ask Too Much of the Colorado River

/in , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Doug Adair

Even as she was going blind, my mom, ever the poet, delighted in sitting out among the palms and birds, and enjoying and visualizing the scene, as I irrigated my date gardens in the Coachella Valley.

In her 1997 poem, “Colorado Water,” she wrote:

The palm said, “My clover is cool around my bole, over my hidden roots.
My fronds clatter, crash
like waves in the far off sea.”

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California’s Sustainable Farms, Models for Agriculture in Warming World, Need Help Surviving It

/in , , /by /KQEDby Liza Gross

The bustle of birds and insect pollinators is the first thing you notice at Full Belly Farm in Guinda, about 100 miles northeast of San Francisco in the Capay Valley, where Judith Redmond and her partners started farming four decades ago.

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San Francisco, Agriculture Suppliers Want Their Water, Sue State Over Drought Restrictions

/in , , /by /The San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

San Francisco, along with a handful of Central Valley irrigation districts, is suing the state for enacting drought restrictions that are keeping thousands of landowners and suppliers from drawing water from rivers and creeks.

San Francisco, along with a handful of Central Valley irrigation districts, is suing the state for enacting drought restrictions that are keeping thousands of landowners and suppliers from drawing water from rivers and creeks.

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Initiative Would Allocated Two Percent of State Budget to Water

/in , , /by /The Porterville Recorderby Charles Whisnand

There have been all kinds of efforts and money allocated to trying to solve California’s water woes. Now an organization states it has the solution — the 2 percent solution.

In what it’s calling the 2 percent solution More Water Now is working to place an initiative on the November 2022 ballot that would require 2 percent of the state budget to be allocated to the state’s water resources. If placed on the ballot and approved the water abundance ballot initiative would set aside 2 percent of the state budget to water.

There has been a great deal of water allocated toward dealing with California’s water issues, which includes a $7.5 billion bond measure that was passed by the state’s voters in 2014. But seven years later that bond has done little to place a dent in dealing with the state’s water woes.

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Could Desalination Play a Role in the Future of the Colorado River?

/in , , /by /GreenBizby Sharon Udasin

Shattering the stillness of a frigid January moonlit sky, the sunrise’s amber aura glimmers over the Tinajas Altas mountain range — giving way to a sandscape of semi-succulent shrubs.

The sun’s increasingly insistent rays animate an otherwise desolate desert corridor that links the city of Yuma, Arizona, to the San Luis Port of Entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. White school buses shuttle Mexican agricultural workers to Arizonan farm acreage, home to America’s heartland of winter leafy greens.

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Madera County Residents and Farmers Face Groundwater Challenge of a Lifetime

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Danielle Bergstrom

Madera County is running out of time as groundwater levels plummet to new depths.

Wells are going dry everywhere. Drillers have months-long waitlists. Residents are scrambling for water tanks. And farmers will soon face a reckoning after agriculture’s footprint, particularly nut trees, has more than doubled in the past 50 years — far outpacing irrigation supplies.

There’s growing consensus among farmers, county officials and residents that Madera’s groundwater problem will be solved mainly by cutting water demand, not by waiting for more dams to be built or even recharging excess water into the aquifer.

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Many California Farmers Have Water Cut Off, but a Lucky Few are Immune to Drought Rules

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ari Plachta

Driving between her northern Central Valley rice fields with the family dog in tow, fifth-generation farmer Kim Gallagher points out the window to shorebirds, egrets and avocets fluttering across a thousand-acre sea of green flooded in six inches of water.

“People say agriculture uses so much water, but if you knew who lived in these areas and if you saw the animals taking advantage of it, you’d think there’s a lot more going on here,” Gallagher said. “This is where you’re going to find a Great Blue Heron. If you don’t want that type of bird then we shouldn’t be growing rice.”

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