Opinion: California Growers Battle It Out For Water

In last month’s column, “The Two Golden States,” a plant pathologist bemoaned the fact that so many urbanites don’t understand farming, and it was really creating a problem for California growers. I agreed with her, but now I’m starting to think that the state’s vegetable growers face an even bigger problem — other farmers.

David Eddy, Senior Western Editor, American Vegetable Grower

David Eddy, Senior Western Editor, American Vegetable Grower

Let me back up: A few months ago, I was talking to a Cooperative Extension farm advisor who specializes in tree nuts, specifically almonds. For many years, people in the almond industry have speculated about when their incredible run of success would end. After all, nothing lasts forever, and almonds had gone from just another crop all the way to the point that in 2012 farmgate value, they had surpassed winegrapes to become the state’s No. 2 crop. Dairy remains No. 1. (At least for now, but that’s another long story.)

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The thing about almonds is that they’ve defied the basic economic principle of supply and demand. The number of acres planted just keeps going up and up — a figure that’s now at about 810,000 acres — but so do the prices. The farm advisor said he no longer believes demand will slack off, that the planting boom would only cease when there wasn’t enough water.

Recently I’ve been surveying vegetable growers as well as pest control advisors and others involved in the industry to find out what they think will be the trending topics in the new year. One trend really stood out. I kept hearing over and over that with water supplies dwindling — in December the reservoirs were so low that the State Water Project allocation for contractors was pegged at just 5% — vegetable growers were going to have to compete with growers of so-called permanent crops such as nuts and winegrapes for water.

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With almond prices so high, almond growers are definitely not going to want to cede their water supply. Especially when you consider that while growers of annual crops can let land lie fallow, tree crop growers can’t just decide not to irrigate those trees without facing disaster.

One respondent said that eventually, even if the water supply problem is solved, which at this point looks like a miracle, there will still be a day of reckoning. That’s because there is a fixed amount of land in California, one of the few places with a Mediterranean climate. “There will be a fight for the land to grow what you want,” was how he put it.

I also recently caught a talk by an ag economist, who said the land battle will mean a lot more crops will be grown in greenhouses. So the upshot is, if you’re a California vegetable grower, and your grandchildren follow in your footsteps, they may well end up farming indoors.

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