Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.
Our Klamath Basin
Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1501313.htmlValley's ag, water economics a conundrumJun. 28, 2009The message from farmers is dramatic and direct: drought and federal water restrictions are crippling San Joaquin Valley agriculture -- and threaten America's food supply. "This is a crisis, and it's a worsening crisis," said A.G. Kawamura, California's secretary of food and agriculture. "The federal government needs to understand this [will have] a major impact on America's food supply, on the nation's food security." Yet even as growers fallow thousands of acres and lay off workers, farm employment in Fresno County is the highest in a decade -- and agricultural production hit a record value in 2008. What's going on? There's no fast and easy answer. Valley agriculture and water economics are too complex for that. 
Rogelio Soto picks nectarines in Fowler for Simonian Farms on Friday morning. The decline in farm work in the Valley has meant hardship for many families.
There are stark differences between the east and west
sides of Fresno County alone.
In the vast reaches of the west side, sharp limits on water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have forced growers to plant fewer acres and hire fewer workers. Unemployment rates are above 30% in towns like Mendota, Huron and San Joaquin. Packers and processors have closed as business dwindles. But on the east side, farmers face fewer water cutbacks. More water means more work -- enough so far, apparently, to take up the slack being felt in the west. Estimates from the state Employment Development Department show that through May, the number of farm jobs in Fresno County is higher than in any year since 2000. The number of agricultural jobs in Fresno County averaged 42,100, or about one in eight jobs in the county. That's up 1,200 from the same period in 2008. The state collects figures only for the county as a whole. Water deliveries cut The sprawling Westlands Water District this year will receive only 10% of its contracted federal water allocation from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta -- the lowest allocation in more than 30 years. Pumping restrictions to protect the Delta smelt and salmon also make it hard for farmers to obtain surplus water from water districts north of the Delta. Instead, farmers must pump low-quality, salty ground water just to keep permanent crops such as almond trees alive. They need more and better water to produce a viable crop from those trees. "I'm teetering on a pogo stick out here," said grower Shawn Coburn, who farms several thousand acres, including almonds and wine grapes, on the west side. "Without water, I'm done. ... The people who used to provide food for America can't provide food for themselves." Farmers in Westlands will fallow more than 100,000 acres because of a lack of water, said Sarah Woolf, a spokeswoman for the district. That is nearly double the 55,000 acres fallowed in 2006, the last time Westlands received its full water allocation. The district encompasses about 600,000 acres, including about 100,000 that are permanently retired. West-side grower John Harris said his farm payroll for the first six months of this year will be about $3.2 million -- a little over half what it was in 2007, when the current drought began. "Were it not for ground water pumping and carryover water, these declines would have been even more dramatic," Harris said. The decline in work has meant hardship for many families. In Firebaugh, local charities gave away about 1,500 boxes of food to needy families last week. "If there wasn't a need, these people wouldn't be standing in line for hours," Firebaugh City Manager Jose Antonio Ramirez said. "It's embarrassing for them, but it's a necessity." "Not everything happening out here is related to water, but the majority is," Ramirez said. "We were giving out food before, even when things were better, but maybe only about 300 boxes."
There's no doubt that water restrictions hurt
employment on the west side, said David
Sunding, a professor of agriculture and
resource economics at the University of
California at Berkeley and director of
Berkeley Economic Consulting Inc.
Moreover, it's still too early to see effects of the water shortage in employment and farm revenue statistics, Sunding said. He expects the numbers will get worse. "Peak farm employment only starts to happen around now with the harvest of vegetable crops, tree crops and others through late summer," Sunding said. "We need to see what the data says six months from now." But Jeffrey Michael, an economist from Stockton's University of the Pacific, believes farmers are exaggerating the effect of federal water restrictions. Unemployment always has been high on the west side, and the recession has taken a heavy toll, he said.
Experts also have long pointed out that
farming on the west side faces a growing
challenge from minerals in the ground water
that build up in soil, eventually poisoning
crops.
"The economy is more complex than a lot of folks out there let on," said Michael, who infuriated west-side farmers with a newspaper essay last month in which he questioned the link between west-side jobs and water availability. Local agriculture officials agree that the east side of Fresno County is helping to make up for declines in the west. "Fresno County is huge, and the east side is working and viable," said county Agricultural Commissioner Carol Hafner. "Even though we have lost some packing sheds, others are picking up the slack and will likely be hiring more than they have in the past." Last year, Fresno County remained the leading agricultural producer in the state, topping the $5.6 billion mark, the highest total ever. The county saw increases in several crops, including almonds, pistachios, pomegranates, citrus and blueberries. More than 13,000 acres of fruits and nuts were added in 2008. But Hafner expects no records for 2009. "The west side is losing acreage, and I would expect the annual crop report to go down," Hafner said. "Production levels are dropping because there isn't enough water." Counting question One economist argues that agricultural employment is an unreliable indicator of economic health because there's no distinction in the state figures between part-time or piece work and a full-time job. "It doesn't mean the total wealth as a result of those farm jobs has gone up," even if employment has increased this year, said Richard Howitt, a professor of agricultural resource economics at UC Davis. Steve Patricio, president of Mendota's Westside Produce, agreed. "The reality is that people on the west side are working less, even though they have jobs," Patricio said. "The total numbers don't tell the whole story." Patricio said reduced water supplies on the west side have shifted production of some crops such as melons and processing tomatoes to other regions of the Valley. Within the Westlands Water District, melon acreage has dropped by about 50%, Patricio said. And picking up the slack are growers in other areas who have more water available. The relative health of other farming areas isn't something to be taken for granted, state agriculture secretary Kawamura warned. Future environmental regulations in the Delta and demands for water to re-establish salmon runs on the San Joaquin River could result in irrigation hardships for farmers beyond the west side. "I don't think this will be the only area to be affected by regulations," Kawamura said. "The entire east side of the Valley could easily find itself in this same kind of pattern." Beyond water Michael said he understands there is real pain in the west-side cities. He's just not convinced that water is primarily to blame. "I've seen the anecdotes from farmers who say they're letting people go, and that adds up across a lot of farms," he said. "I'm sure the water situation is having huge impacts on the profitability of individual farmers." Sunding and Howitt agree with Michael that the west-side economy is lackluster even in good times. "If they gave the west-side farmers all the water they wanted, would all of the problems in these cities be solved? No," said Sunding. "But the point is, it would help." Affixing blame on water or other economic factors doesn't change the reality for west-side residents, Howitt said. "The bottom line is, we know that if farmers can't get water, they can't grow the crops," he said, "and if they don't grow the crops, they don't employ farm labor." "We know we're starting from a basis of
high unemployment in these west-side towns
anyway, so what this creates is an incremental
impact on these people who are already having
a difficult time," Howitt said. "It's making
life rougher -- by a lot." Bee staff writer Robert Rodriguez contributed to this report. The reporter can be reached at tsheehan@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6319.
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Page Updated: Tuesday June 30, 2009 03:43 AM Pacific
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Tesla, I'm Jeff Michael, the economist you accuse of bias.
I suggest you google my name and endangered species act. You will see that most of my previous research is interpreted as anti-ESA and has been praised by the Wall Street Journal, American Enterprise Institute, Rush Limbaugh and other non-liberals.
I don't like farm subsidies, but I'm not anti-farmer. I believe in property rights. I like low taxes, and tend to be skeptical of big state bond issues whether they are for water projects or high-speed trains.
I do not support the peripheral canal. I could be convinced to change my mind by a good cost-benefit analysis and strong governance plan. I have been critical of the BDCP and Delta Vision for not sponsoring one. That is the same view as the non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office. Hardly radical. In fact, isn't it Republicans who usually argue for cost-benefit analysis of everything government does.