California’s Drought Is Part of a Much Bigger Water Crisis. Here’s What You Need to Know

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2015/07/californias-drought-crisis.html

California’s Drought Is Part of a Much Bigger Water Crisis. Here’s What You Need to Know
By contributors | Jul. 7, 2015
By Abrahm Lustgarten, Lauren Kirchner and Amanda Zamora

Why do I keep hearing about the California drought, if it’s the Colorado River that we’re “killing”?

Pretty much every state west of the Rockies has been facing a water shortage of one kind or another in recent years. California’s is a severe, but relatively short-term, drought. But the Colorado River basin — which provides critical water supplies for seven states including California — is the victim of a slower-burning catastrophe entering its 16th year. Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California all share water from the Colorado River, a hugely important water resource that sustains 40 million people in those states, supports 15 percent of the nation’s food supply, and fills two of largest water reserves in the country.

The severe shortages of rain and snowfall have hurt California’s $46 billion agricultural industry and helped raise national awareness of the longer-term shortages that are affecting the entire Colorado River basin. But while the two problems have commonalities and have some effect on one another, they’re not exactly the same thing.

Just how bad is the drought in California right now?

Most of California is experiencing “extreme to exceptional drought,” and the crisis has now entered its fourth year. This month, signaling how serious the current situation is, state officials announced the first cutback to farmers’ water rights since 1977, and ordered cities and towns to cut water use by as much as 36 percent. Those who don’t comply with the cuts will face fines, but some farmers are already ignoring the new rules, or challenging them in court.

The drought shows no sign of letting up any time soon, and the state’s agricultural industry is suffering. A recent study by U.C. Davis researchers projected that the drought would cost California’s economy $2.7 billion in 2015 alone.

[GreatGazoo]

1. a good and very thorough article

it gets off to a slow start but goes on to cover "use it or lose it" water laws, subsidies for water intensive crops and over-development of the desert. Most of the article deals with agriculture as the number one user of water.

Watched Gabe Brown's one-hour presentation (see YouTube) on soil building last night and he advocates strongly for making animals part of the mix on crop lands. Specifically he grazes cattle in ways that make them trample the vegetation into a mat of water retaining, ground cooling biomass, then uses a seed drill to plant through that mat.

Brown points out that one of the forgotten curses of monoculture is that by eliminating animals, monocultures break the loop that would return phosphorous and other key nutrients (in a usable form) to the soil. Farmers are increasingly adopting cover crops and no-till as a way to make the most of the water that falls from the sky -- increasing the holding capacity (organic matter) near the surface, and reducing inputs and expenses associated with bringing water and nutrients to depleted soils.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Since so much of out plant food is grown on depleted soils

I do not see how plants can provide the nutrition they are supposed to provide.

[GreatGazoo]

3. In conventional farming they add N P and K. Nitrogen alone is a $40 bil business

(but legumes will pull it right from the air). Farmers add key nutrients to depleted soils just to get growth / volume but you are correct that the full nutrient content can vary greatly.

This is Gabe Brown in 2014 on how he rebuilt his soil without synthetic fertilizers. He is famous now for pushing beyond no-till and pioneering a more holistic approach that uses mob grazing and other soil friendly techniques. He is selling this POV to a room full of conventional farmers (which may be why he throws in lines like "holistic is not a hippy word..&quot :

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. I had a 15 acre organic farm on Whidbey Island.

Did chickens and eggs and ducks and grew veggies and flowers, was one of the people who started the Farmer's Market Co-op in Freeland, where a friend of mine is still growing and selling all these years later.

I only wish we had had computers back then, given how isolated the area is.

[GreatGazoo]

5. I am growing haricot vert, favas, flagolets, sunflowers and edamame on 2 organic farms now

I sell to this guy (among others) and he makes amazing meals with it:

I hear good things about ducks -- heartier than chickens, easier is some ways. How were they for you?

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. In Wash state they were used to get rid of the slugs.

bur I had to give them a medicine in their water to kill some bug that the slugs carried, which made the ducks sick.
You could tell when they got sick cause they would walk around in tight circles.....
Really was funny learning curve for me till I figured out the problem.

I hatched and hand raised them, so they were never a problem, followed me everywhere
.Did not use them for meat. I like being around them, a whole different energy than chickens.