Kou Her’s family has run the 12-acre Herr Family Farms in Sanger, just east of Fresno, for the last 20 years, raising a variety of vegetables for Bay Area produce and farmer’s markets. In those 20 years, Kou and his parents haven’t seen anything like the heat wave gripping the Central Valley this week.
The Sunizona community, in the south-western US state of Arizona, is just a speck on the map. A few hundred homes dot the landscape along dirt roads and for a few miles along a state highway that leads to the foot of the Chiricahua mountains near the New Mexico border.
Cynthia Beltran moved to Sunizona with her seven-year-old son last autumn even though the area lacks functional drinking water wells, because it was all she could afford. She cannot afford the $15,000 (£10,000) cost of deepening her well, which dried up last year, and had been paying for a local firm to deliver water in a tanker. But at $100 a week it became too expensive, so now she will be relying on a friend to help her fetch water from her mother’s well.
It’s not quite on the level of tourism or biotech, but agriculture is a major contributor to San Diego County’s economy. The county’s annual crop report was released this week, and it shows agriculture contributed nearly two-billion dollars in 2019.
Statewide, agriculture in California contributes $50-billion a year, much of it coming from industrial-sized operations.
The answer to resolving many COVID-19 roadblocks faced by our community members can be found at 2-1-1 San Diego through its Community Information Exchange ecosystem.
As a biologist and environmental advocate, even before the pandemic, I was scared by the headlines about our planet: A 75% decline in insect biomass with a 40% loss of insect species predicted; a United Nations warning of the imminent extinction of 1 million species worldwide; a 3 billion loss of birds in United States and Canada over the past half-century; the growth of dead zones on our coasts and the decline in the oxygen held by the world’s oceans. Climate change will only worsen these environmental problems.
San Diego County residents who are trying to avoid grocery stores during the coronavirus pandemic can find a lot of their food needs met through a bountiful supply from local farmers, ranchers and other vendors.
Three days a week, cars line up by the dozens at Kitchens for Good at the Jacobs Center in Chollas View. Drivers open their trunks to receive prepared meals and produce. This is just one of many distribution events in high demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is no evidence supporting the author’s claim that the San Joaquin Valley’s water supply challenges are linked to California’s food security or the rise in foreign produce imports.
With all the time we’re spending at home these days, there’s a greater focus on keeping our water and food supplies safe from coronavirus. Grocery shopping is an essential activity, but unless you’re careful, experts say you can still bring coronavirus home from the store.
So far, this winter has brought ample snows to the Sierra Nevada, the spine of mountains that runs along California’s eastern flank. That’s good news for Californians, because the range’s melted snow provides 60 percent of the state’s water supply. Anyone in the United States who likes fruit, vegetables, and nuts should rejoice, too, because water flowing from the Sierra’s streams and rivers is the main irrigation source for farms in the arid Central Valley, which churns out nearly a quarter of the food consumed here.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
