Here’s why governor didn’t order water cuts on farms

by PAUL WENGER 

Get ready. The drought just became real for millions of our fellow Californians. They’re going to start asking more questions about water use. For our part, farmers need to be ready to address those questions, honestly and forthrightly.

...As our fellow Californians pay new or more intense attention to the drought, they’ll also hear the tired refrain about agriculture using 80 percent of the state’s water. They will ask, “Why didn’t the governor order cuts on farms?”

When we hear that question, those of us who have been living with the drought for four years — and dealing with chronic water shortages far longer than that — may be stopped in our tracks. Of course, water use has been cut on farms and ranches, with many of the state’s farmers facing water-supply cuts of 60 percent, 80 percent, even 100 percent, and for a second straight year.

We’ll need to make sure urban and suburban Californians understand how the water system works: that farmers are always the first to be cut back — always — and that those cuts go deeper and deeper until the water planners can no longer ignore the need to cut urban uses, too. That day has come.

...Our growing state, national and global populations will continue to need more food and farm products, and what California farms do for the nation and world can’t be easily replaced or duplicated. For example, dozens of foods taken for granted in produce aisles — wholesome and nutritious fruits, vegetables and nuts — are grown in the U.S. largely or exclusively in California.

If we don’t continue to grow food and farm products in California, they’ll have to be grown somewhere else — and that “somewhere” will almost certainly be a place that’s not as efficient or tightly regulated as California farms are. That will affect the global environment, in terms of habitat loss in other places and the rising “carbon footprint” of importing that food back into California and the rest of the U.S.

This terrible drought year will test our patience, both in trying to maintain our farms and ranches and in responding to the Californians who have now discovered that the drought affects them, too. Individual farmers and ranchers must be involved in the debates about water use that will doubtless spread to many more communities this year. We must make the case for the importance of agricultural water use, and for the continuing need to build more storage and take the other steps needed to assure our state’s water future. Get ready.
 
Paul Wenger is president of the California Farm Bureau Federation

READ ENTIRE OP-ED