The Effects of Water Distribution

http://www.canada.com/life/Despair+Valley+dries/1402193/story.html

Issues involving water shortages and increasing droughts, as a result of climate change, are contributing to serious fluctuations in the economy and lifestyles of the current areas being affected by this new trend. In the article “Despair as California’s Central Valley dries up” (2009, March 18) the author, Tangi Quemener, explains how produce farmers in California’s Central Valley are having to deal with their government’s decisions regarding the distribution of available water.

The farmer interviewed in this article has 640 acres that used to produce a total of 50,000 tonnes of tomatoes that he would have sold for four million dollars. The problem is that he doesn’t have enough water to grow those tomatoes and as a result, the irrigation system he has installed is now sitting unused wasting even more of his money. The water that is available to him costs $400 US per 1,200 cubic meters. Farmers in California are really feeling the effects of the water shortage.

In the article, the farmer states, “ the storages are so low, the main population is number one, the fisheries, wetlands, are second, and the farmers third”. This is the main argument of this article, that farmers should be treated as more important and allocated more water resources.

I have to disagree with this statement. California’s Central Valley was originally a semi-desert and has since become a large source of produce for the United States as a result of a large irrigation system (Gordon 2009). This land was not meant to provide the necessary resources for the production of mass quantities of produce. In the article the farmer said “…a federal judge ordered water pumping cutbacks from the Sacramento River Delta in August 2007 to protect an endangered fish species.” This is proving that there are serious implications occurring that are resulting from the overuse of water in the Central Valley. In order for farmers to continue to successfully produce crops, they would need the water that is currently protecting an endangered group of Chinook salmon (NASA 2009). The effects of agriculture in this once natural desert are causing drastic changes in the ecological populations of other species.

What the author of this article should be promoting is the growth of produce in a natural environment that provides the necessary climate and growing conditions to cheaply and efficiently produce the product. Tomato crops could be successfully grown in the mid-west to southwestern Ontario, where water is cheap and available and the climate suits. During the winter, produce can be grown in greenhouses to simulate the all year seasons that are present in California. However, it is understandable that the author could be considering the amount of jobs that would be lost if farming was stopped in the Central Valley. The unemployment rate would rise substantially and the state would have to find another industry, perhaps with a lesser impact, to pursue. The author may also be unsure in the regards of finding farmers to grow the produce in Ontario. There are jobs needed here, in fact the Heinz plant in Leamington, Ontario has recently made major cutbacks in its production of tomato products. This was due to the increasing cost of supplies, which includes the tomato paste, some of which came from California (3).

Overall I don’t understand why we would let a marsh run dry, affecting all the species inhabiting it, or endanger a species in order to divert water from its natural path. Yes, the farmer wants to make a profit, but is it worth the risk of several species and habitats? It would be beneficial to the environment, but maybe not the state of California, to grow produce in a more natural climate where water is available, and the crop can be grown more cheaply and efficiently.

References

Gorman, S. (2009 February 20). California’s arms lose main water source to drought. Thomson Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE51J6MO20090221

NASA Earth Observatory. (2009 July 27). Drought in California’s Central Valley.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=39810

Hill, S. (2009 August 25). Heinz slashes Leamington tomato production. The Windsor Star. http://www.windsorstar.com/life/Heinz+slashes+Leamington+tomato+production/1929117/story.html

Quemener, T. (2009, March 18). Despair as California’s Central Valley dries up.

Associated Free Press. http://www.canada.com/life/Despair+Valley+dries/1402193/story.html