Farmers and ranchers may be among the first to feel the impact of California’s water shortages, but California Farm Bureau Federation President Paul Wenger says the ramifications could extend to every household in this country, if shortages of certain commodities like tomatoes result from fallowing fields.
Wenger made the assessment last week as he addressed agricultural leaders attending the annual CFBF Leaders Conference in Sacramento.
"Of all the tomato products consumed in the United States, 95 percent come from the great state of California," he said. "So if you are going to have a pizza pie in Chicago, that tomato sauce came from California. If you are going to have that salsa in New York City, the tomatoes in that salsa came from California. People don’t realize that if our tomato industry doesn’t have the carryover in stock, it is going to mean that there will be restrictions and prices are going to go up."
Wenger described to the group his conversation with President Obama during the chief executive’s visit to the drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley last month. He said that while he disagrees with the president on many issues, he felt it was important to be in attendance to help carry agriculture’s message to Obama.
"I was fortunate to have quite a bit of time to express to the president the effects that the drought is having on the farmers and ranchers in this state," he said. "My first comment was that there would be some folks who will ask him to use his executive authority who have been challenging his use of executive authority in other areas. But there is an appropriate time to use executive authority, and when it comes to the Endangered Species Act, that is one of them."
Wenger said he reminded the president that the environment and wildlife have survived droughts before, but that "we have a population of people in this country and the world who are depending on the food infrastructure that won’t handle a drought very well."
Wenger said it is not realistic to curtail the ability of California farmers and ranchers to produce crops.
"There will be dire consequences, not only in our rural communities that are going to be directly affected, but every store across this country," he said. "The last thing you want to do is say the sky is falling, because to a degree there will be food in the stores."
Wenger said he told President Obama that food price increases related to water cutbacks would be especially painful for lower-income people.
In discussing the drought during his Leaders Conference speech, Wenger, who grows almonds and walnuts, cited the example of his home water district, the Modesto Irrigation District. In past years, the district has been a very reliable source of water, but this year it informed farmers that they will only get 18 inches of water—less than half the average allotment in past years.
"All of a sudden, folks who have depended on surface supply and didn’t put in wells so they could access groundwater, they are now wondering what they are going to do for the survival of their permanent crops. You ask how the dairy producers are going to try to grow a corn crop on 18 inches of water. It is going to be very difficult, if not impossible," he said.
Noting that farmers in many other parts of the state face water cutbacks, including zero allocations from state and federal water projects, Wenger urged farmers to become more active politically to push for water storage and other necessary changes.
"We have done a fantastic job of doing what we do. We farm, but we haven’t been the political advocates that we need to be," he said.
(Steve Adler is associate editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at sadler@cfbf.com.)