Hard Times in the Valley

It's hard to even know where to start with the farm crisis. First, there's the drought: several years of lower-than-average rainfall that have reduced the Sierra snowpack and therefore water deliveries to farmers in the Central Valley. Then, there's the fish: federal court rulings and various biological opinions that have required water to be diverted into the San Joaquin/Sacramento River delta to ensure the survival of endangered fish species. The combination of the drought and the biological opinions have lead to water delivieries that have been reduced by 90% or even eliminated. Farmers are plowing under fields or even cutting down orchards in anticipation of permanent water reductions.

Then there's the misery. Towns like Mendota, largely agricultural, have been flattened economically by the water reductions. Unemployment is officially at 40% but that doesn't even include those that are underemployed, and then there are the families. The foodbanks are out there weekly for distribution and even they can't keep up with the demand.

The problem is that even before the drought life in those towns were already miserable. Between the seasonable labor, the low wage, the pesticides, other forms of pollution, the lack of services, and just the poverty, the places were already pretty marginal. See the NPR article on the poor nutritition in the Valley.

I'm still thinking about what I think.

Hard Times in the Land of John Steinbeck Newsweek Business Newsweek.com

Mendota: A Town Scraping Bottom (SF Gate)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/25/MNQ718IAAI.DTL


Central Valley Disconnect: Rich Land, Poor Nutrition (NPR)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106061080


Drought Adds to Hardships in California (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/us/22mendota.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Dying on the Vine
http://www.newsweek.com/id/211381