San Joaquin Valley drought

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I read Friday's San Francisco Chronicle. No, I don't usually read the Chronicle. It doesn't strike me as being that great of a paper. The LA Times is so much better. Even our local Fresno Bee has good coverage.

But I was in Columbia, gold-mining country, at the end of my exhausting (poor me!) three-day field trip with the Ft Washington 6th-graders. Not relishing the 2+ hour ride home on a cramped school bus, I was looking for a paper. And there, right next to the Sarsaparilla soda, was a stack of SF Chronicles. Best use of 75 cents ever. Made the ride home go SO much more quickly.

At any rate, they had an article about the drought here in the Central Valley. It wasn't by one of their own reporters. Just an AP story off the wire. It mentioned a tidbit I had never heard before. If the eight counties of the San Joaquin Valley were there own state just by themselves -- which many here probably wish for -- it would be the top agricultural producing state in the US. This is some fertile territory right here!

But the drought has been brutal. Environmental issues haven't helped, though there seems to be some disagreement over how much a difference that actually makes. Truth is, farmers have lost well over $700 million dollars this year alone! Can you imagine? Compare that to Katrina or 9/11. Think of the families and farmers who are in deep.

It's already autumn, and spring will be here before we know it. Instead of ironing out water policy in time for the planting season, politicians are muddling their way through another unsolved problem. The article notes that farmers who should now be planting winter lettuce and calculating how much cantaloupe to plant are instead wondering if they will be able to plant anything at all.

Pray for rain & snow!

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