Fresh Fruit

PART II- AGRICULTURE

And the farmers gonna farm, farm, farm, farm, farm...

Who doesn't like a good apple? Source: Imgur

It seems like there's a lot of doom and gloom in California and those water greedy farmers are all to blame. But are they? Why punish the farmers in what's recognized as the most productive American farmland? In the 1990s 9/10 of the top producing farming counties were Californian (Cook 1998)! As California is a top producer in produce don't we all love and want fresh cheap fruit like Natalie Dormer enjoying her apple?

While farmers are the big drinkers of water in the Southwest they're doing it to benefit your wallet at the grocery store. Most of California's production, naturally, is for the 300 million people in the domestic American market. But as a highly developed country there's only so many more fruits and vegetables Americans can fit into their diets (and budgets) annually (Cook 1998). So what's a farmer to do? New expensive technology, increasing international competition, increasing labor costs, increasing rents, etc don't stop just because new consumption rates have slowed. Naturally farmers turn towards the crops that will get them more money, which consequently also use more water; check out the graph below! In addition farmers will produce more to sell more at cheap prices to maintain their American consumer base and compete in other global markets (Cook 1998).

Crop production changes 2003-2012. Source: New York Times 20/04/14

Here's where we have a problem: increasing intensive farming using more water with less water to go around. As the cost of production goes up the farmers will continue to produce what will bring them the biggest profit. And with record loses predicted during this drought, upwards of the billions (Wall Street Journal 15/07/14), farmers will continue to produce high profit crops despite the increased costs associated with water usage. This will only further the aridification of the Southwest. The media frequently reports on the potential for rising food prices because of the drought, but as NPR (23/05/14) suggests farmers will ensure all available water they have will go towards the crops to keep prices down.

There is hope though! Community gardens may relieve some of the farming pressures. Algert et al. (2014) found that community gardens in San Jose actually produce vegetables more intensively than traditional farming practices and save money per square foot. Yet are we going to leave the future of vegetables to people with various skills and patients and not the farmers themselves?

Here's where the farmers get stuck in the blame game. Despite having less water farmers will use more water to maintain the agricultural industry that we indulge in. So who's to blame for furthering the 'thirstification' of the Southwest? You tell me!