California agriculture consumes 80% of the water available for human consumption, so what we eat every day is an important area in which we can use less water personally and also vote with our grocery bills for sustainable water management in California.
Farmers grow the crops that they know we will buy. But will California farmers' crops have an adequate water supply as we move toward more sustainable management of our water supply - especially groundwater management? Is this question just a case of the cart getting ahead of the horse since Jerry Brown's new groundwater regulations won't require sustainability of "high and medium priority groundwater basins" until 2040?
What should we be eating in California? What should the farmers be growing? Here is my best answer for now, based upon complex news with few clear conclusions:
We should consume less, especially imported goods. We should eat much less meat and animal products in favor of more fruits and vegetables. We should not buy bottled water. We should welcome higher prices for water that reflect efforts to sustainably manage our water supply.
The LA Times used UNESCO Institute for Water Education data in an interactive graphic that illustrates how much water is required to produce a variety of foods - but interestingly, nuts are excluded from the discussion. This article singles out beef, pork and lamb as water hogs compared to cabbage, strawberries and onions.
The April 15 10am hour of Forum on KQED, titled, "In Drought-Striken California, How Much Water Does Agriculture Use?" gave me more insight. It is an in-depth discussion among 3 water experts and Jared Huffman, California 2nd District Congressman. The issues are complex. Yet, here are some takeaway messages from this discussion:
* Don't complain about mandatory urban water cuts. Stop flushing the #$%@ toilet! This is the low-hanging fruit. Urban residents can cut water use quite easily with little impact to quality of life. (Check out my Water Challenge!) Farmers are already facing drastic water cuts and are leaving profitable fields fallow.
" . . . how many people are going to have to refinance their home because of a
25 percent cut in their water that they're going to put on their lawn or
use in their house. I doubt, anybody. . . . You fill your toilet bowls with cleaner water than I drink here in the valley" - Paul Wenger (President, California Farm Bureau)
* As constituents, we need to pay attention to water management in CA so that we can urge our leaders to achieve sustainable water management immediately.
"The problem is that California's water house is out of order. We've
over-promised our water rights. . . . This is completely unsustainable and the system
is out of balance." - Adam Scow (California director of Food & Water Watch, an environmental advocacy group)
Additional messages from this useful discussion:
* Stop expanding almond production in CA.
* Stop fracking to protect our groundwater.
* Stop buying bottled water.
* Use gray water.
* Buy less and buy locally. Buying locally encourages pricing based on actual costs to produce goods rather than competition among markets and investor speculation. For example, California alfalfa is exported to support burgeoning foreign dairy industries.
What about the villainous almonds that require a gallon of water per nut? The real villain is cheap water.
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