California Agriculture Archives

Water Rights: Feds Could Place Burden on Las Vegas to Protect California Farms

April 13, 2023/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Ed Joyce /Las Vegas Review-Journalby Colton Lochhead

The federal government laid out a pair of options Tuesday to drastically cut water use along the Colorado River and keep Lake Mead and Lake Powell from crashing any further in the coming years.

One of the proposals would impose hefty cuts following a strict priority system, which would protect the California agricultural sector’s water rights while placing the heaviest burden on cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix, while the other proposal would share those reductions more proportionally across Nevada, Arizona and California.

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California Ag Chief’s Plan for Future Includes ‘With Innovation, Small Farms Can Be Viable’

April 11, 2023/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Ed Joyce /The Fresno Beeby Jim Guy

California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross is putting forward a five-fold plan intended to guide the direction of farming in the the state in the next decade.

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As River Runs Dry, Desert Region is at a Crossroads

April 5, 2023/in Home Headline, Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Ed Joyce /AgAlertby Caleb Hampton

As early as midnight, scores of Mexicali residents with U.S. citizenship or legal status line up at the port of entry. They cross into Calexico, walking past darkened storefronts, and gather near a 24-hour donut shop. Before dawn, they board buses for fields across the Imperial Valley.

Every year, some 15,000 people legally cross the border to work on farms in the region. In the winter, they join local residents in harvesting as much as 90% of the nation’s vegetables.

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California Farmers Flood Fields to Boost Groundwater Basin

March 28, 2023/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Ed Joyce /AP Newsby Amy Taxin

A field that has long grown tomatoes, peppers and onions now looks like a wind-whipped ocean as farmer Don Cameron seeks to capture the runoff from a freakishly wet year in California to replenish the groundwater basin that is his only source to water his crops.

Taking some tomatoes out of production for a year is an easy choice if it means boosting future water supplies for his farm about 35 miles (56 kilometers) southwest of Fresno.

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A California Tunnel Could Save Stormwater for Millions. Why is It So Divisive?

March 1, 2023/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Ed Joyce /The Washington Postby Scott Dance

As drought-weary Californians watched trillions of gallons of runoff wash into the Pacific Ocean during recent storms, it underscored a nagging question: Why can’t we save more of that water for not-so-rainy days to come?

But even the rare opportunity to stock up on the precious resource isn’t proving enough to unite a state divided on a contentious idea to siphon water from the north and tunnel it southward, an attempt to combat the Southwest’s worst drought in more than a millennium.

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Benefits of Rainstorms in Sonoma County Far Outweighed Damage They Caused

February 21, 2023/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Ed Joyce /The Press Democratby Austin Murphy

Their timing wasn’t great.

After moving to Sonoma County from Santa Monica in 2020, Kim and David Lockhart purchased River’s Edge Kayak & Canoe in Healdsburg. Heavy rains across the region the year before had caused widespread flooding, especially along the lower Russian River.

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Amid Climate Change, a Question: What’s the Future of California Rice?

December 21, 2022/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Ed Joyce /Capitol Weeklyby Aaron Gilbreath

After absorbing sunshine all summer, mature rice plants in California’s Sacramento Valley stand as high as three feet tall, in five inches of flood water. Planted in spring, farmers drain their fields in August, and they drive big, loud harvesters into them in September, gently separating the rice stalks from the grain, and blowing the harvest into bankout wagons that they tow beside them.

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PPIC Report: ‘No End to Agriculture,’ but Major Shifts Ahead

December 1, 2022/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Ed Joyce /Agri-Pulseby Brad Hooker

A new report by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) seeks to “dispel a common myth” by declaring there will be no end to agriculture— “as some have envisioned.” The researchers conclude the industry and communities will continue to thrive, despite a rapidly shrinking footprint from water restrictions. “California’s farmers have shown an extraordinary capacity for adaptation to changes in prices, technology and the regulatory environment,” they note.

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Opinion: Drought Impacts an Entire Agricultural Ecosystem

November 17, 2022/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Ed Joyce /Ag Alertby Tim Johnson

This third year of extreme drought is taking a devastating toll on agriculture in California. We see pictures of orchards being removed, dry canals and fields that should be a verdant green now a sunburned brown. The impacts on the farm are easy to see. The effects on our communities and on the wildlife that depend on agricultural lands in production are no less real, even if they are harder to observe.

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‘Towns Built on Agriculture’ Plead for Federal Drought Relief

August 10, 2022/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Ed Joyce /Agri Pulseby Brad Hooker

California agriculture is eyeing a massive spending package in Congress and pressing for emergency relief funding to ensure local economies survive the drought.

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