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The Agricultural Council of California, better known as Ag Council, is working to change the public’s perception of farmers across the state. Because of the California drought, farmers have long been the scapegoat for the state’s water shortage. The media, according to the Ag Council, has perpetuated this notion that farmers use far beyond their means.
“It shouldn’t be green lawns versus green vegetables,” Ag Council President Emily Rooney said in a statement. “We are all in this together, and we want Californians to understand how the drought is affecting small family farms and the food supply by providing reliable, consistent information.”
According to the Ag Council, the media’s statistics are wrong. The media previously reported 80 percent of California’s water use goes to farmland. Based on reports from the California Department of Water Resources, that figure is closer to 41 percent.
Rooney says farmers have been in search of new water-saving technology for decades; it’s not a new concept for the agricultural industry. In addition to using drip irrigation systems that save water, farmers are planting crops that use less water. They’re doing more with less.
Governor Jerry Brown’s mandatory water cutbacks have resulted in more than 41 percent of California’s farmlands seeing cuts. Farmers with senior water rights could be face even more cutbacks. The result of the historic California drought: the loss of over 23,000 farm-related jobs and a potential $5.7 billion economic loss for the state.
About 50 percent of the nation’s fruits, vegetables and nuts are grown in California. While it’s difficult to predict the effect the fallowed land will have on the overall crop yields, Rooney says certain crops are being affected.
CoBank, a national bank that services agribusiness, conducted a recent study on six high “net return” crops: almonds, pistachios, walnuts, wine grapes, processing tomatoes and oranges. Four of the six crops saw declines in crop yields since 2013. Almonds are down 10 percent. Pistachios are down almost 25 percent and wine grapes are down five to 10 percent, while oranges have seen little effect.
“We know California residents understand the difference between taking shorter showers and risking our state legacy of fresh fruits and vegetables,” Rooney said in a statement.
To help drive the conversation, especially on the agricultural front, Ag Council is involved with the State Water Resources Control Board and the Department of Water Resources. Rooney participates on the Ag Stakeholder Committee at the Department of Water Resources as the department develops groundwater regulations that would implement the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which was approved by the state legislature last year.
