California Reaches Record Agriculture Revenues During Drought

Crop revenue grew in 2012 and 2013, the first two years of the drought, according to the report, issued by the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit devoted to water use research. In 2013, revenue hit a record $34 billion. It declined by $480 million in 2014, but that year still saw the second-highest revenue ever

California’s drought has brought with it stories of acres of farmland fallowed and billions of dollars lost. Farmers have undeniably been affected by water shortages, some more than others, but a new report has found that the state’s agriculture industry as a whole has actually posted record revenues in the midst of the drought.

The drought’s impact on agricultural jobs has also been less severe than some feared, the report found. The number of agricultural jobs has increased every year since 2010. In 2014, agriculture in California employed 417,000 people, the highest number ever.

The industry has been able to maintain high revenues in part because of a shift to higher-value crops like nuts and fruits, which enable farmers to make more money per gallon of water. Some of these crops are also more labor intensive than lower-value crops like alfalfa, offsetting some of the job losses when fields go fallow.

But as surface water grows scarce, farmers have also kept their revenues up by increasing groundwater pumping. Groundwater is meant to be a backup in times of drought, but it’s been over-pumped even in wet years, and the results are disturbing. A NASA report released last week found that some areas of land in California’s San Joaquin Valley are sinking faster than ever before because of groundwater depletion — one area sank more than a foot in eight months.

“Continued groundwater overdraft, while reducing the economic impacts of the drought for the agricultural sector now, has shifted the burden to others,” the authors of the Pacific Institute report write. Cities will have to repair roads and other structures damaged by sinking land. Bettina Boxall of the Los Angeles Times reports that the concrete sides of a canal near Los Banos have cracked as the land subsides. And, the report notes, anyone who needs to pump groundwater in the future will have to drill deeper — and pay more — to get it.

California needs to move faster on its plans to regulate groundwater use; legislation passed last year doesn’t require the state to reach full sustainability until the 2040s.

The agriculture industry may have been able to succeed so far in part by offloading the costs of groundwater over-pumping onto others. But eventually, even agriculture will suffer if California’s aquifers run dry. The industry needs to recognize that, and the state needs to act before it’s too late.

Source: New York Times

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