California's Water Woes Threaten the Entire Country's Food Supply
By Scott Thill, AlterNet
June 6, 2009
What a difference an administration makes. Samuel Bodman, the previous secretary of energy under the Bush administration, spent his short term stumping for nuclear power plant construction, polluting the hell out of the Earth, profiting off global warming and trying to significantly downplay America's singular role in greenhouse-gas emissions.
The new one? Well, he's a doom prophet with a Ph.D.
"I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen. We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California. I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going," Steven Chu told the Los Angeles Times in February, shortly after taking office in January. "I'm hoping that the American people will wake up," he added, just in case there was any confusion about the gravity of the situation.
That kind of apocalyptic foresight has made Chu a breath of fresh, dystopian air. For eight nearly insufferable years, the American public has had no shortage of political tools telling it everything is going to be all right, that the United States is the greatest country in the world, that reports of our impending environmental devastation have been greatly exaggerated, and so on. By contrast, Steven Chu is a Cassandra on a mission from reality. But few, especially in the state he singled out, feel like buying what he is selling.
"Dr. Chu is not a climate scientist," argued Jim Metropulos, senior advocate at Sierra Club's California chapter, echoing the same conditional given in the Los Angeles Times article in which Chu was quoted. "Obviously, he's versed on it, but he's taking an apocalyptic view. I think it's not sustainable in its current form. We rely on imported water to grow high-value crops, but maybe the agriculture we have today may not be the agriculture we have decades from now."
To read the full article: http://www.alternet.org/story/140487/
Showing posts with label issue: food shortages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label issue: food shortages. Show all posts
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Severe California Drought Imperils Crops, could Raise Melon, Lettuce Prices
Severe California drought imperils crops, could raise melon, lettuce prices
February 4, 2009
http://www.supermarketguru.com/index.cfm/go/sg.viewArticle/articleId/276
The worst drought in nearly two decades is imperiling California farmers, who provide most of the nation’s fruits and vegetables in routine years. That includes nearly every cantaloupe we eat in summer, and most of the lettuce we consume in spring and fall.
Central Valley growers are starting to abandon fields so they can channel whatever water they get to save their almond trees. They’re also spending heavily to drill down hundreds of feet to find new water sources. If rainfall stays sparse, well water could become the primary water source for crops.
Federal reservoirs here, in the United States’ largest farming state, remain at their lowest levels since 1992, the Associated Press report said. To make matters worse, a dry spring is forecast, and little relief if any is in sight.
Court decisions favoring environmental groups have “cut back water allocations that flow through a freshwater estuary called the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the main conduit that sends water to nearly two-thirds of Californians,” AP described. “Environmental groups and federal scientists say the delta’s massive pumps are one of the factors pushing a native fish to the brink of extinction.”
As a result, federal water deliveries were 40% of normal allocations in 2008, which caused the loss of more than $300 million in crops statewide. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will determine this year’s rate of federal water supplies later this month, according to AP. But with a new state survey showing the population of the threatened fish “is at its lowest point in 42 years,” the outlook for federal water looks grim.
February 4, 2009
http://www.supermarketguru.com/index.cfm/go/sg.viewArticle/articleId/276
The worst drought in nearly two decades is imperiling California farmers, who provide most of the nation’s fruits and vegetables in routine years. That includes nearly every cantaloupe we eat in summer, and most of the lettuce we consume in spring and fall.
Central Valley growers are starting to abandon fields so they can channel whatever water they get to save their almond trees. They’re also spending heavily to drill down hundreds of feet to find new water sources. If rainfall stays sparse, well water could become the primary water source for crops.
Federal reservoirs here, in the United States’ largest farming state, remain at their lowest levels since 1992, the Associated Press report said. To make matters worse, a dry spring is forecast, and little relief if any is in sight.
Court decisions favoring environmental groups have “cut back water allocations that flow through a freshwater estuary called the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the main conduit that sends water to nearly two-thirds of Californians,” AP described. “Environmental groups and federal scientists say the delta’s massive pumps are one of the factors pushing a native fish to the brink of extinction.”
As a result, federal water deliveries were 40% of normal allocations in 2008, which caused the loss of more than $300 million in crops statewide. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will determine this year’s rate of federal water supplies later this month, according to AP. But with a new state survey showing the population of the threatened fish “is at its lowest point in 42 years,” the outlook for federal water looks grim.
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