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The first of a CSPA editorial series on the heels of the defeat of the Nunes attempt to defund the Salmon BiOp

 

The truth about California's water, fisheries, the delta and desert farming: We have to do a better job spreading the word...

 

June 22, 2009 -- Anyone watching Congresman Nunes impassioned plea asking for approval of his amendment to remove the funding necessary to implement the NMFS Salmon BiOp would have thought that the entire economy of the San Joaquin Valley and the lives of its people were being thrown aside for a, "three inch minnow" and "killer whales." While his performance made excellent video to be played on local valley TV stations, his claims about minnows and whales being the cause the valley's economic woes are far from the truth. Let's examine the issues one by one.

 

On desert farming

 

Row crops with black plastic. DWR photo
Nunes claimed unemployment figures of from 35 to 50% for valley farm communities, with people standing in food lines. Neither the figures nor are the food lines disputed but what is disputed is the cause. These valley communities have had high unemployment numbers for many years, almost all exceeding 20% to 30% even in the best of times. Lack of farm employment wasn't the cause then nor is it the cause nowAs farmers in the valley have changed farming practices, the number of farm hands necessary to raise a crop on a per acre basis has diminished year after year. Much of the land that was once dedicated to labor intensive annual row crops is now planted in orchards, vineyards, or field crops such as alfalfa, hay, rice, corn and cotton and the methods of planting, tending and gathering of these crops has changed as well.

 

Machine harvesting of tomatoes. DWR photo
Agriculture has devised machines to do much of the planting, maintenance and harvesting that was once done by farm labor. The work was brutal, but at least afforded some employment for short periods of the year followed by weeks of unemployment while crops grew or the idle winter time from harvest to pruning, plowing or planting.

 

Now, due to automation and a change in crops, most of these jobs are gone. No more setting siphons to irrigate row crops. No more hand picking tomatoes or grapes. Now most orchards and vineyards are irrigated by drip irrigation and tomatoes and vineyards are harvested by machine. Troughs are filled by high speed pumps on wheels, sucking water from canals and pumping it into furrows  with checks to contain the flow. Instead of weed control being cared for by a field hand with a hoe, black plastic sheeting now does the job while heating the ground at the same time, increasing growth and yield.

 

Even so, actual farm employment is up for the valley. The increase is due to the ever expanding acreage in cultivated land as the corporate agribusinesses attempt to tame more and more of the desert, increasing the size of their orchards and vineyards annually with an associated demand for more and more water, with only a minimal increase in labor costs.

 

While farm employment is up,  an increase in unemployment  in Nunes' district in other occupational areas mirrors what is occurring in the rest of the U.S. due to the economic downturn. Is it worse in his district? Probably so. Regions already suffering chronic high unemployment almost always suffer greater economic hardships when things go bad. Flint and Detroit Michigan, while not farm towns are prime examples of what happens to communities with chronic high unemployment when the economy collapses.

 

The history of farming is from what was once a labor intensive operation of the 1920's occupying the efforts of 30% of the U.S. population to the automated agribusinesses of the 21st century. This became apparent in the Midwest in the 1970's as numerous once bustling small towns started disappearing from the map. Their stores and houses sit vacant, ghost  towns marking a different time in America. While the mules, the farmers and the towns are gone, the farms are still there, now much bigger businesses, operated by corporations rather than family farmers, employing few, less than 1% of the U.S. population.

 

If the amount of water allocated to Congressman Nunes' district was increased ten times it would not solve his district's problems. They are much deeper than a lack of water. The jobs he seeks are gone forever. Instead of demanding more water Congressman Nunes needs to find the vision to work toward solving the long standing reasons for the valley's extended history of high unemployment and lack of real opportunity for advancement beyond opportunities for seasonal farm labor and a way of life that no longer exists.

 

To be continued... Next week, "The truth About California's Water"