California’s Idle Crop Land May Double as Water Crisis Deepens

By Pam Knox

As you probably know, the multi-year drought in the Southwestern U. S. has had profound negative consequences for farmers there. The folks who control water supplies are making cuts to irrigation water that are decreasing or stopping water deliveries to some farmers, leaving them with no irrigation for their crops. The scarce water has to be divided between urban water users, farmers, industrial users, and ecosystem protection, and there is not enough for any of them. How would you handle it if your irrigation water was cut in half or stopped? It is a tough question that does not seem very germane in the last few years of relatively abundant water in the Southeast compared to the longer drought years that occurred in 1998-2002, 2007-2009, and 2011-2013. Bloomberg posted this story about the dire choices farmers are having to make with no access to water to farm.