Central Valley Farmers Reeling From Drought Crisis

The Central Valley in California – the number one U.S. source of market produce – has been hit hard by a third successive drought and farmers in the area are floundering, the AFP reported.

"We’ve got zero water this year," said Jim Diedrich, who has worked the area for 50 years.

Diedrich, whose family has farmed the land since 1882, was forced to leave most of his 640-acre stretch of land idle. It would normally be filled with 50,000 tons of tomatoes he would have sold for four million dollars.

The area is responsible for some 94 percent of U.S. tomatoes and 89 percent of U.S. carrots are grown here.

Diedrich is one of many farmers right now that feels betrayed by the government for favoring the state-managed distribution system over individuals and nature sanctuaries.

"The storages are so low, the main population is number one, the fisheries, wetlands, are second, and the farmers third," he said.

In August 2007, a federal judge ordered water-pumping cutbacks from the Sacramento River Delta to protect an endangered fish species. The water shortage was exacerbated after pumping was cut by half the amount.

The Diedrich family now owns 535 acres of almond trees and over 1,000 acres of now-fallow tomato fields.

The farmers have to buy water at a high price just to keep the crops alive. The costs range around $400 per acre-foot for an estimated annual bill of $750,000.

Jim’s brother, Bill Diedrich, said the family used all of their remaining assets to get by this year.

“Heaven forbid, we don’t know what we’re going to do next year" if water remains scarce,” he said.

Some 70,000 jobs are threatened by drought in the valley, where unemployment has already topped 20 percent in some areas, according to a recent university study.

Jim compared it to how the Indians must have felt when colonizers stripped them of their land and their rights. "Now we know how the Indians felt," he told AFP.

"We’ve got the same treatment."