This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
California's New 'Dust Bowl': "It's Gonna Be a Slow, Painful, Agonizing Death" For Farmers
"It's really a crisis situation," exclaims one California city manager, "and it's going to get worse in time if this drought doesn't alleviate."
For the state that produces one-third of the nation's fruits and vegetables, the driest spell in 500 years has prompted President Obama to make $100 million in livestock-disaster aid available within 60 days to help the state rebound from what he describes is " going to be a very challenging situation this year... and potentially some time to come."
As NBC reports, Governor Jerry Brown believes the "unprecedented emergency" could cost $2.8 billion in job income and $11 billion in state revenues - and as one farmer noted "we can't recapture that." Dismal recollections of the 1930's Dust Bowl are often discussed as workers (and employers) are "packing their bags and leaving town..." leaving regions to "run the risk of becoming desolate ghost towns as local governments and businesses collapse."
"The truth of the matter is that this is going to be a very challenging situation this year, and frankly, the trend lines are such where it's going to be a challenging situation for some time to come," Obama said Friday during a meeting with local leaders in Firebaugh, Calif., a rural enclave not far from Fresno.
Obama promised to make $100 million in livestock-disaster aid available within 60 days to help the state rebound from what the White House's top science and technology adviser has called the worst dry spell in 500 years.
...
"A lot of people don't realize the amount of money that's been lost, the amount of jobs lost. And we can't recapture that," Joel Allen, the owner of the Joel Allen Ranch in Firebaugh, told NBC News.
"It's horrible," Allen added. "People are standing in food lines and people are coming by my office every day looking for work."
Allen — whose family has been in farming for three generations — and his 20-man crew are out of work.
He said: "We're to the point where we're scratching our head. What are we gonna do next?"
At the local grocery store, fruit prices are up — but sales are down. The market was forced to lay off three employees — and many more throughout the town are packing their bags and leaving town.
McDonald said farming communities like Firebaugh run the risk of becoming desolate ghost towns as local governments and businesses collapse.
"It's going to be a slow, painful process — but it could happen," McDonald said. "It's not going to be one big tsunami where you're gonna having something get wiped out in one big wave. It's gonna be a slow, painful, agonizing death."
...
The problem is not just in California. Federal agriculture officials in January designated parts of 11 states as disaster areas, citing the economic strain that the lack of rain is putting on farmers. Those states are Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah.
»
- 49774 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Everyone who is losing their jobs and packing up can now, thanks to ObamaCare, spend time tucking their children into bed at night and fulfilling their dreams to be artists. Isn't life grand in the Secular Utopia?
18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
Leviticus 26 King James Bible
6 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
7 And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
Amos 4 King James Bible
Elmer Gantry, as I live and breathe!
And lo a partnership of government and industry joined unto each other, stealing the people's money and dumping tons of alumininum, sulfer, and boric acid out of jet aircraft over the pacific clouds. The waters did cling to this foul shit and dumpith the water eastward to texas ranches where they don't give a shit ith what happens to California Agriculture. "Ya snooze, ya loose, y'all.!" was heard in the land.
normally I'd -1 every post about the bible, period. Not this one.
Yet California wine grape growers are reporting a bumper crop - probably pot growers too, but they don't report as much. Its not all bad news.
This will not be the first or the last time whole civilizations have been wiped out on account of water overconsumption and drought.
Yep, the Anasazi (Ancient Ones) Natives in the American Southwest found out what happens during a 500-year drought that seems to happen on the continent - "every so often...."
How fitting, a video clip of the African Bushman. Oh wait...I guess that is Obama.
Having lived in CA. for most of my life I can tell you they've never been smart with their water. They should've been building desalinization plants for the last 20 years. When they do get rain they divert the runoff into the ocean in alot of cases - especially So Cal. - instead of capturing it and diverting it into reservoirs.
Geez, you'd think Feinstein would try to get her husband Bloom another multi-billion $ contract to build some de-salinization plants.
The money won't help them unless they do these things now. Droughts, threats of droughts, etc. have been going on there for as long as I can remember, yet they do nothing.
BtW - we've been raining/snowing here in Idaho for at least the last 10 days. Antoher week or so and they can take Idaho off the list.
and then there's the chemtrails....
They need to give this drought a proper name - like the do with hurricanes. Heck 2 inches of snow and a little wind even get its own name now.
I am surprised we don't have a war on drought.
Obama will need a "fountain" pen and a phone to solve this one.
irony: we COULD win a war on drought in many places. Keep all irrigation paths closed until the final destination AND move people & farms only to where there's fucking water.
whocouldanode.
They live in a desert and are surprised when they run out of water?
There are almost twice as many people in California as there was the last time there was a drought. Time for people to leave and go back where they came from. That will take care of the problem, so if you werent born in California, get the hell out! If California is returning to historical weather patterns, there is no other choice. Given how most Americans feel about California, I'm sure the refugees will be welcomed with open arms.
Totally agree. Get the Greyhound busses warmed up and ready to head to Mexico. Problem solved.
You mean Texas?
The south will rise again. FURTHER south.
If it weren't for the radiation included in the rain, it might be good to move those farms to WA
Well what a surprise. The arrogant, narcissistic, lying illegal alien kenyan muslim sociopath psssing out more tax paid freebies for votes. Who would've thunk it.
must be glow-ball warming
So this is bullish for chemtrails and HAARP?
Let's take some theories, a few facts and do a little speculation. The conventional theory of human settlement in the western hemisphere is the Bering Strait crossing. This mean N.America was settled before central and south. It's an obvious fact that N. America has fantastic water systems for human exploitation. Also Native Americans knew about agriculture and trade, they practiced them. So why didn't they develop larger and more complex groups, like central and south American and the E. Hemisphere when conditions were suitable? Well we know that large scale european settlement began towards the of a mini ice age. Is it possible the Europeans hit an unusual sweet spot weather wise? N. America doesn't have some of the protections against violent weather that early civilized areas have. Specifically the Rockies run north/south. Cold arctic air is funneled to the middle and eastern areas to collide with warm tropical flows north.
Best known for large, man-made earthen structures, the city of Cahokia was inhabited from about A.D. 700 to 1400. Built by ancient peoples known as the Mound Builders, Cahokia's original population was thought to have been only about 1,000 until about the 11th century when it expanded to tens of thousands.
Monks Mound at Cahokia Mounds today. Photo by Kathy Weiser.
At its peak from 1,100 to 1,200 A.D., the city covered nearly six square miles and boasted a population of as many as 100,000 people.
Sweet spot? It's known that the Vikings did on Iceland/Greenland and later 'climate change' saw them essentially leave. The same has happened many times throughout history, which is one reason we find empty cities in such places like the SW. Other reasons include the cyclical comet clusters, ice ages and whatnot. Cali scientists have spoken about this long term cycle for at least a decade... only now is the 'proof' available for all to see. A similar situation is occuring in Brazil and other areas of the globe. These are long cycles, some are extremely long such as the cyclical 'dark star' which has a 28 million year cycle that shows up in our geological history. Other noncyclical events occur as well to which Immanuel Velikovsky was ridiculed for mentioning in public.... same with the 'global warming' farce... now they call it 'climate change'... which is more accurate, as the 'global warming' leads to the ice age cycle due to increased temps/precip as rain and/or snow... which we see now. The cyclical ice age has a pattern of deviations from the norms which is rather telling.. and we are already there...like the stock market cycle, we are only waiting for, what one of our infamous think tanks like to call a "Pearl Harbor" catalyst, which is a good time to pull the rug out as well. The human cycle mirrors that of nature.... as all is one afterall... the ole holographic nature of the universe or quantum intanglement et al.... EU theory helps to understand this, but that is still forbidden to speak about in public as well... conspiracy nuts don't you know.... who are the only ones thinking about 'The Day After Tomorrow'.
Texas will be right there with their hands open for the handouts.. they talk big but beg louder
Texas didn't bother asking the Kenyan dictator last time for taxpayer handouts, why would they bother next time?
you really need to look how much Texas DOES take.. they are #32 and part of the bottom half.. with a negative net.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_taxation_and_spending_by_state
32 Texas 219,460 277,457 -57,997 15.7% 19.9% -4.2%It's amazing to me how many people on here are vehemently anti-california. Just because there are a majority of liberals in the state does NOT mean that the whole state is filled with idiots daydreaming about obamacare and high speed rail projects. I grew up in San Luis Obispo county (one of the hardest hit areas from the drought), and I've watched the ag explosion in the central valley during the last 10 years. What used to be a dry patch of land with a few tumbleweeds has now become a 1000 acre almond orchard, and this process has repeated itself over and over again as big ag companies strong arm their way into getting water rights.
When I was a kid growing up (15 years or so ago), the people that lived in my area of california were very much in tune with the climate and planned their ag production around the rain. Dry-farmed grain crops (oat hay, alfalfa, etc.) were the norm, and seasonal grazing for cattle was also common during the spring/ early summer. If it was a good rainy year, your crop did well. If it was a dry year, your crop didn't do well. Then came the vineyards, and the orchards, and the more profitable crops that require constant irrigation in this type of climate. They assumed, erroneously, that the Sierra-Nevada snowpack and the natural aquifers in California were inexhausitible resources. Now we are seeing that they are not, and with billions invested in ag resources in the state we are going full speed ahead towards a crisis point which will hopefully (in my mind) lead to a change in our view of agriculture in this state.
Double post, oops
To the assertion that money won't create missing water - this will sound like a quibble, but it is known that the water distribution system is very lossy. Large amounts are lost to evaporation in open canals, and leakage through porous liners. And yeah, money is the solution to these problems. These losses have been tolerated because it wasn't cost-effective to fix them (tho this is partially due to distortions of market incentives, courtesy of govt).
If the drought goes on, incentives will change. Assuming government does not go full retard, losses in water distribution will be reduced, but that won't come cheap, and this will be seen in food prices.
I've read over four pages of the comments to this thread, and I've got one thing to say.
Wait till there is no food on the shelves at your favorite grocery store, and this whole debate goes right out the window. It doesn't look like we have that long to wait.
You'd never know there's a drought from what I've seen. Three fuckin golf courses within a mile of me...sprinklers going full blast at 3am. THOUSANDS of GALLONS of WATER WASTED DAILY. I understand reality doesn't apply to San Francisco progressive POS and all, but it's a bit unseemly I must say. They should outlaw "lawns" too, but then that would put their Mexican slaves out of work I guess, and we can't have that now can we? I keep reading about all the "food" that won't be on the store shelves. WTF are you talking about? Everything at my store is from Argentina and other latin american countries...even the grapes....and I live in California! Much like the boom/bust housing market, this is just par for the course in the land of fruits and nuts. We'll get an El Nino weather pattern next year and everybody with million dollar homes in the hills will bitch about mudslides. Same ol' same ol'.
But it's always ... Different This Time
It's a good thing then that government is there to protect us.
Hypocrisy ... Obama heads to California ranting about water usage for landscaping then heads to Palm Springs for multiple rounds of golf
Good thing we don't have that pesky global warming stuff to cause any droughts.
...Oh wait...
You're all fucked.
Good thing we have that pesky global warming stuff so as to not cause stuff like record snow storms east of the Rockies and the freezing over of the Great Lakes.
...Oh wait...
MeelionDollerBogus is so fucked.
dumbass : global warming increases atmospheric water which definitely drives bigger snow storms - it's SUMMER in Australia, winter HERE, and half a year from now will be the opposite.
Stupid Murrikin - you think the entire planet gets winter at the same time.
betya Village Homes in Davis isn't having so much trouble growing food despite the drought:
How to make a Food Forest Suburb TrailerI don't need California. I can grow lettuce in my Mom's basement.
Please, Ya'll are missing the most important point. California was turned into a halfway house of riff raff supported by the full-bellied, guilt-ridden, college educated minions, who just can't stand success and so must create disruption and decay. It's kinda like the majority of drug addicts are liberals? See?
So California, once our golden state, has been ceded to a group of foreigners you would not sit down at the table and eat with. 60 MILLION "legal" immigrants have been added to the US population in the last twenty years. And for every "legal" immigrant, there are ten wet birth certificate immigrants, who must be let in to "join" the rest of the family. Can you say, "Do you hear America's death knell?"
Under no condition would those who died in WWII have bothered to get out of bed if they had known you would cede their country to non-whites who just want to drink your milkshake. You find that offensive? I find it offensive that I can no longer go to my home state, California, because of the violence from gangs and drugs, and that I am white. California is now 25% white. Is that "diversity?" Or is that genocide?
China. All Chinese; they hate non-Chinese, kid you not. Africa? Drove out the whites from South Africa, the only place that ran in the whole continent, now it's a mess. How bout Latin America? Can you say Mexican Cartel? Or Argentinian collapse?
Whites...With Christian strucutre built this country. Now the genocide has begun. Or at Oprah say, "A lot of white people have to die..." This is why California is a mess. Roll back the immigration numbers, and suddenty, California can get through this drought, but not with the 40 MILLION there now. President Johnson said we should never go beyond 200 MILLION people because of the aquifer carrying capacity in this country. Instead, we let in those who hate us, who would destroy us, and we bottle our water and send it to China.
Good luck. Prices gonna get very high.
Turn the clock back to 1950.
I just went to buy some cashew butter for this recipe I was going to try. One area grocery store isn't carrying it anymore, and the other had a jar for $17! Yikes!
95% or so of American cashews and almonds come from Cali, so I guess we can kiss those goodbye. Better get ready to use walnuts and peanuts instead!
Why is it a dust bowl? Wacko environmentalists...that's why. http://www.caintv.com/global-warming-isnt-causing-ca
Whoever SMELT it, dealt it.