Hug a farmer: From unfair trade to poor water allocations, California growers tough it out

Farmers face unique struggles in their business every day. Some are man-made, like our current export system, which allows ship carriers to send empty containers to Asian markets and leave American-grown goods at the docks to rot.

Over the past few months, our focus has been to educate our partners, elected officials, the media and the public about the significant trade imbalance occurring as a result of dysfunction and congestion at ports throughout the United States. This effort has been successful on many fronts, and it has taught us some lessons we need to take as we move forward to other challenges we face.

The export challenges seem minor compared to the issues farmers face by nature. And nature’s difficulties are made worse by some who have this “winner take all” mentality, environmental politicians and lobbyists, elected and not elected, who have no interest in finding joint solutions that work for everyone.

▪ Mother Nature creates droughts. A lack of leadership creates water shortages.

This past week California water officials announced that they were cutting State Water Project allocations from 15% to 5%. A UC Merced study found that California farmers left nearly 400,000 acres of agricultural land unplanted last year, with a direct cost to farmers of $1.1 billion and a loss of 9,000 agricultural jobs. We should expect more fallowed land this year.

Despite voter-approved funding, our state officials have failed to prepare for drought by increasing water storage and conveyance. The last major reservoir built in this state was more than 50 years ago, when our state’s population was half of what it is now. The capacity to serve the population has dramatically diminished over time.

Because of this failure, California’s food producers have had substantial water cuts. The lack of water forces farmers to pull thousands of nut and fruit trees from the ground, and thousands of acres are being fallowed.

▪ Food security fears

Suddenly the American people are waking up to the fact that challenges in our fields become challenges in their homes.

If we can’t grow food, they can’t eat.

If we don’t have enough water to grow and the ability to ship our products overseas, we lose our competitive edge, our products go to waste, and our farmers and the businesses that support them don’t get paid. That hurts everyone.

People are worried about what is happening around the world.

We need a self-sustaining water system and we must allow farmers to be self-sufficient in producing our food. We need a water system that allows our farmers to do what they do best — grow the food that feeds our country and the world. Because when farmers grow, not only do people eat, but businesses grow, taxes get paid and communities thrive.

With the lack of stability and security across this country and world, we need to fix these problems now.

There are no winners when one side has everything. Farmers don’t win. Businesses don’t win. Communities don’t win. We need to develop solutions, working with the government, private sector, environmentalists, and industry to create short- and long-term solutions that give us a stable and secure system.

The option to do nothing is no longer an option.

This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 12:30 PM.