California Harvest much Smaller than Normal across Crops

[antiquie]

One commodity after another is feeling the impact of the state’s epic water shortage. The great Sacramento Valley rice crop, served in sushi restaurants nationwide and exported to Asia, will be smaller than usual. Fewer grapes will be available to produce California’s world-class wines, and the citrus groves of the San Joaquin Valley are producing fewer oranges. There is less hay and corn for the state’s dairy cows, and the pistachio harvest is expected to shrink.

An estimated 420,000 acres of farmland went unplanted this year, or about 5 percent of the total. Economists at UC Davis say agriculture, which has been a $44 billion-a-year business in California, will suffer revenue losses and higher water costs – a financial hit totaling $2.2 billion this year.

Calculating total job losses related to the drought is difficult, especially in an industry in which many workers are transient and much of the work is part time. The state Employment Development Department, drawing from payroll data, said farm employment has dropped by just 2,700 jobs from a year ago, a decline of less than 1 percent.

By Dale Kasler
The Sacramento Bee

[Mr.Bill]

1. I guess this was to be expected.

The percentages of losses are actually far less than I expected them to be. Another year of drought and things will get far worse.

[antiquie]

2. I fear you are correct.

[Mr.Bill]

3. If California agriculture collapses

all the idiots who say "I wish California would break off and fall in the ocean." or "why don't we give it back to Mexico?" Are going to look awfully stupid when they see what happens to the nation's food supply.

There will be huge price increases and severe shortages everywhere..

[JDPriestly]

4. Will this cause people to stop and think about the prospect of global climate change?

It's hard to link increasingly severe storms and additional rain to climate change. But when food prices rise due to smaller crops? Maybe.

If California farms had been flooded, if the rain had been more than our dams and rivers could hold, the country would take notice. The drama could be televised -- people standing on cars and houses under water.

But drought is not photogenic, not dramatic, not the stuff of great TV -- so we in California have been sitting here trying to keep our avocado and other trees alive, planting desert gardens of succulents and cacti in our front yards while the rest of the nation thrived on flood insurance.

It's time to switch from oil and gas to alternative energy. We need to do it now, not tomorrow.

[dhill926]

5. spot on….

[antiquie]

6. Exactly, since we cannot do it yesterday.

Meanwhile, yes on Proposition 1 is about it.

[Kablooie]

10. The people that need to accept climate change ...

are the same ones that will still be able to buy all the luxury foods they want no matter how many others are starving.

Until the polluting companies see profit in adapting to climate change they will continue to block all efforts to deal with it.

[kiri]

7. California should not be growing rice

California should not be growing rice. It is very water-intensive and wastes zillions of gallons that could be better used for other crops. Moreover, rice-growing only succeeds because of huge subsidies, tax benefts, and cheap water. USA's rice needs can easily be filled by imports from SE Asia.

[LeftyMom]

8. The parts of CA that grow rice are flood zones

and migratory bird stopovers. They would and must be wet anyhow. Even this year some of the rice fields were being flooded short term (a few weeks) because the birds need them.

[pinto]

9. Yep.

[antiquie]

11. Asia imports California rice.

Geese flying over a rice field in the Sacramento Valley

[mackerel]

12. I would have thought the draught would have put a stop to housing development.

Nope they're putting in another development just a mile from my house. I see they even laid lawns in some of them.

[petronius]

13. I was driving up I-5 in August, and I noticed a completely dead nut orchard

right next to the highway. Maybe not drought-related, but I hadn't seen such a large expanse of dead trees in that area, and did wonder if it was due to water shortage.

Thanks for posting!

[Brother Buzz]

14. I just drove that section this last weekend

There are many dead almond orchards, and have been for years. Some are now being worked up for firewood. Large tracts of that area have really marginal soils for almonds and should never have been planted in the first place; pie in the sky easy money from the almond boom a few years ago bit them in the butt.

[petronius]

15. Interesting, thanks! So maybe not a drought thing, just something that hadn't

registered for me previously...