California farms lose main water source to drought

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE51J6MO20090221

California farms lose main water source to drought

Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:50pm EST

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's main source of irrigation water is expected to go dry this year for most of its growers due to drought, idling at least 60,000 workers and up to 1 million acres of farmland, federal officials and experts said on Friday.

The zero allocation for most of the farmers who buy water from the federally managed Central Valley Project was declared as California water officials repeated their plans to cut amounts supplied from a separate state-run water system to 15 percent of normal.

The drought-forced cutbacks are a huge blow to thousands of farmers in the Central Valley, which produces over half of the fruit, vegetables and nuts grown in the United States. Higher prices are likely for a wide range of crops as a result.

The Central Valley, a fertile but arid region stretching some 500 miles from Bakersfield to Redding, is the agricultural heartland of California, which ranks as the nation's No. 1 farm state in terms of the value of crops produced -- more than $36 billion a year.

…

[bkkyosemite]

1. We need to plant gardens.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. It's difficult to grow vegetables in a drought

Rain barrels may become quite popular!

[bkkyosemite]

5. Good idea. CA's rainy season is March - May ..let's hope there is lots of rain.

[XemaSab]

8. Not quite

The rainy season is October to May, and so far we're rocking at 60% of what's expected. x(

[bkkyosemite]

14. I stand corrected. But I remember one of our worst droughts that we made up as the rain came down in

buckets Feb, March, April and the beginning part of May. Articles are saying there is 110% of normal at Mt. Shasta and water storage from last year. As you go further south it of course becomes worse. Let's hope for a very rainy spring. Sierra's are 60% of normal and lowering. We have had droughts before let's hope we get rain. (I am a Californian forced to leave my state because I couldn't afford to live there any longer. Live 27 miles from CA in Southern Oregon.)

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. Rain barrels, old bathtubs - anything to gather/store water

.
.
.

I grew hundreds of tomatoes, and dozens of other plants last summer with only rainwater that I stored/gathered

NOT ONE DROP came out of a tap

And look what I grew




yeah - that's a tomato plant(tree) growing right through the roof!

more pix at link . .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=246x10250

[alittlelark]

6. Sustainable agriculture for all

http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/Concept.htm

[tularetom]

3. Unemployment is already in the double digits here

With farmers cutting back we should see a rush to the border - immigrants both legal and illegal, hauling their asses back to Mexico. Eventually we may have to build that wall to keep US citizens IN.

[opihimoimoi]

4. The answer lies in the direction of Hydroponics

Green farms....here we come.....

[aquart]

7. How do they simply starve a source of American food?

[XemaSab]

9. I'm not sure what you mean

:shrug:

[excess_3]

10. eat local

it is entirly posible to continue living
while giving up Californis
stawberries and watermelons

[Journeyman]

11. Uh. . . yeah -- unless of course your local food *is* California grown. . .

[bkkyosemite]

12. alot more is grown in CA than strawberries and watermelon.

[NYC_SKP]

15. ZPG. Zero population growth.

Sooner or later. Otherwise all our efforts to use less water per capita just go to serve more people.

[tama]

16. So,

how are the snow tops and glaciers of Rocky Mountains doing? Feeding rivers just like they used to? Anyone knows?