I have mixed feelings, but it's nice to get the farmers' perspectives. // "Scenes from the New American Dustbowl" https://medium.com/matter...
Apr 10, 2015
from
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.
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 On another note, a lot of the land in my state that had been set aside for grassland bird conservation has since been withdrawn from that program and planted with corn since the price of corn is so high.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)