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Pacific Institute Report Defies Logic PDF Print E-mail
Wednesday, 10 September 2008 15:26
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The report ---“More with Less”--- by the Oakland-based advocacy group Pacific Institute may have some beneficial aspects to it but it poses a serious threat to California’s family farmers

It calls on our farmers to embrace new technology regarding their water use.  But farmers are already doing this…between 1967 and 2000, farmers increased food and fiber production by 89 percent with an increase of only 2 percent in applied water. 

The report further asserts that California water rights, some of which have served the people of California for over 100 years, are not being applied correctly and that water is not being used beneficially.  I don’t understand how growing food for people to eat is not a beneficial use of water. 

The report also calls for farmers to change from one crop to another because of water use.  It is important to remember that farmers choose which crop to plant based on what consumers are buying. 

If farmers decrease their alfalfa acreage, as called for in the report, then California’s dairy industry will be forced to rely upon thousands of truckloads of feed from other states in order to feed their herds.  This scenario certainly goes against what the Pacific Institute has called for in other documents relating to protection of the environment.

Telling a farmer to grow one crop instead of another to save water is the same as telling a restaurant to become a shoe store for the same reason.  It just doesn’t make sense.

 

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