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Jenny H.
I have mixed feelings, but it's nice to get the farmers' perspectives. // "Scenes from the New American Dustbowl" https://medium.com/matter...
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It's a strange feeling; I was raised on a farm and appreciate the farmers' plight, but I am also an environmentalist. It's a complex problem and I don't think it's fair to put all the blame on 'water hog' farmers. I feel this is one small part of the larger problem with how we do industrial agriculture in the United States. I have driven through the Central Valley so many times and marveled at the types of crops grown there. I don't understand what the thought process was at the time to allow the planting of such irrigation-intensive crops. Maybe they thought the water would never run out? Perhaps. More frustrating still is that I think the prime farmland in the midwest should be our salad bowl, not our corn and soybean bowl. Let farmers in California practice more dryland farming and leave the water-intensive crops to areas that have more predictable precipitation. It drives me absolutely crazy, this Russian roulette we play with our food supply so that some mega farms can keep politicians in office. They are hurting people and jeopardizing the food security of the nation. I want Melly to punch them in the nuts. >.< - Jenny H.
Those "scientists" the reporter was tagging along with seemed to blame all their troubles on environmentalists trying to save a salmon population plus a fish species. I wasn't aware of that aspect of the water distribution issue. (And I suspect that angle was vastly overplayed here.) - Eivind
Not loudly enough for it to reach my ears, but I have driven past many a congress-created-dustbowl type sign :) - Eivind
The Delta smelt 'problem' was one we focused on heavily when I did my NEPA training in California. It is, indeed, a battle that has been raging for a long time, but it's certainly not the only one. There are many water-related conflicts in California, but the fact remains that irrigation for farming in the Central Valley is the biggest user of water in the state. My opinion is that instead of just pointing fingers and squabbling, the state needs to make some tough decisions about the future of farming in California. Not that it needs to end, but that a vast change is necessary to cope with the persistent drought and water shortages. This is something that definitely should have happened many years ago, but was allowed to languish until now, when the state is in full-on crisis mode. - Jenny H.
Yes. It makes me so sad to drive through Iowa and see all this land that could be growing food for people that is unread growing field corn for cattle who should be eating grass. - laura x
Indeed, laura. I have a friend whose father grows corn and soybeans in Iowa (/shocked face). She rallied really hard to get her dad to take a few acres out of corn/soy production and grow vegetables on them instead, but he wouldn't go for it. Said 1) the neighbors wouldn't like it and 2) the government subsidies for corn and soy were too valuable. How in the hell are we ever going to change this broken system? *sighs* - Jenny H.
I don't know how the current system can be fixed. It's going to have to change, though, if California becomes more arid on a long-term basis. On another note, a lot of the land in my state that had been set aside for grassland bird conservation has since been withdrawn from that program and planted with corn since the price of corn is so high. - John (bird whisperer)