Environmental group urges California to limit the growing of almonds and alfalfa

As drought and local weather change proceed to wreak havoc on California’s water provide, an environmental advocacy group is looking on the state to restrict the cultivation of thirsty crops like almonds and alfalfa, saying the agriculture business is guzzling many of the state’s provides on the expense of residents.

Massive agribusinesses and manufacturing facility farms — in addition to oil and gasoline operators — are among the many greatest water customers within the state and may subsequently be making larger sacrifices, argues a report by the nonprofit Meals and Water Watch. The group is demanding that Gov. Gavin Newsom develop new water insurance policies that cease the enlargement of agriculture and fossil gas industries, whereas making good on the state’s promise to supply clear, secure and inexpensive water to all residents.

“California must make elementary reconsiderations and adjustments to our water infrastructure, and the governor at the moment has the authority to behave instantly,” stated Chirag Bhakta, the group’s California director. “California is mired in long-term drought proper now, and although that is the case, the state nonetheless misuses billions and billions of gallons of water that go to the fossil gas and large agricultural sectors.”

The report, launched Wednesday, comes at a time when the state is feeling growing strain to scale back the quantity of water it takes from the Colorado River, and as growers battle with curtailments.

Authors of the report discovered that expanded acreage for nut crops like almonds and pistachios used 520 billion gallons extra water in 2021 than in 2017, indicating that enlargement is occurring regardless of tightened water provides. That’s sufficient to provide greater than 34 million folks, or almost 90% of California’s inhabitants, for a yr, the report stated.

The Meals and Water Watch report additionally discovered that alfalfa makes use of a mean of 945 billion gallons of water yearly, and that mega-dairies eat greater than 142 million gallons per day to take care of their cows, whereas oil and gasoline corporations spent 3 billion gallons between 2018 and 2021 for drilling operations.

Andrew Ayres, a analysis fellow on the Public Coverage Institute of California’s Water Coverage Heart, stated that it’s honest to level out the agriculture business’s consumptive water use, however that “it’s additionally necessary to recollect all the advantages that we get from utilizing water in these purposes.”

California grows greater than 80% of the world’s almonds and a big portion of the nation’s fruits, greens and different nuts.

“Particularly in winter, California is producing the vast majority of issues like lettuce and different leafy greens that in any other case could be very tough to get your arms on by means of the yr,” he stated.

Steve Lyle, a spokesperson for the California Division of Meals and Agriculture, stated in an e mail {that a} “tradition of conservation” has pushed the state’s agriculture for many years.

He cited knowledge from the Division of Water Assets displaying that farmers and ranchers used 14% much less water over a 35-year interval whereas growing yields by 38%, and that within the span of 20 years, almond growers lowered the quantity of water used to develop a pound of almonds by 33%.

The business is “dedicated to attaining one other 20% discount by 2025,” he stated, including that “water-efficient micro-irrigation is at the moment utilized by 85% of California almond farms.”

As for dairy farms, water used for milk manufacturing shrank by 88% over a 50-year interval, Lyle stated.

Though agriculture represents solely about 3% of California’s gross home product, it gives about 11% of the nation’s meals provide, greater than every other state. California can also be the nation’s major producer of a number of crops, together with almonds, artichokes, olives and walnuts.

However agriculture can also be a thirsty sector, accounting for about 80% of the state’s water allotted for human consumption. Whereas that feels like an enormous share, it’s not distinctive to California, stated Thomas Harter, a professor within the Division of Land, Air and Water Assets at UC Davis.

“Anyplace on this planet the place you’ve got irrigated agriculture, that would be the dominant water person, simply due to the character of rising meals with irrigation,” he stated.

In California, most of that water comes from underground aquifers, which the state depends on extra closely throughout dry years. The overpumping of groundwater in some components of the state is drying up wells in file numbers, inflicting the land to subside and harming wildlife and ecosystems.

In response to the issue, the state in 2014 handed the Sustainable Groundwater Administration Act, which is meant to manage the quantity of groundwater pumping in California. However the timeline for implementation spans greater than 20 years, which has led to a frenzy of nicely drilling by many hoping to faucet into provides earlier than they’re reduce off.

Authors of the report say that timeline “falls far in need of defending groundwater by delaying motion till 2040.” They argue that SGMA places business earlier than folks. “Low-resource households, folks of colour, and communities already burdened with environmental injustices usually tend to face extreme drought impacts and water shortages,” they wrote.

Lyle stated that SGMA is already being applied and that the Division of Water Assets has required groundwater sustainability companies submit plans to guard consuming water for weak communities. Water companies should meet their sustainability targets inside the 20 years, he stated.

The report additionally appeared on the dairy business, whose merchandise represented the state’s highest quantity of agricultural money receipts in 2021 at $7.57 billion, in response to the Division of Meals and Agriculture.

Harter stated there’s little question that animal-based meals, on the entire, have a bigger water footprint than plant-based ones.

“I’m not promoting towards animal merchandise, however I believe the extra necessary half is to seek out, in the long term, a greater steadiness between [the two] that permits us to be sustainable, not simply in California however the world over,” he stated.

Like dairy, numerous crops grown within the state are despatched abroad. In response to the report, greater than half of the state’s almonds are exported, equating to about 800 billion gallons of water per yr. Alfalfa too is commonly exported, with about 35% of California’s hay merchandise despatched overseas in 2020.

Whereas alfalfa requires numerous water to develop, it has a excessive return primarily based on how a lot water is utilized, stated Daniel Putnam, a cooperative extension specialist at UC Davis who focuses on alfalfa. The plant’s deep root programs are additionally good for soil well being.

However he acknowledged that the strategy of rising the crop, which is most frequently by means of gravity-fed irrigation flood programs, might be improved “by means of extra cautious irrigation programs” and by growing yields.

“That is why growers have been engaged on overhead irrigation, they’ve been engaged on subsurface drip irrigation, and in my ebook, all of those maintain numerous promise,” he stated.

However whereas there’s room for enchancment, Putnam emphasised that agriculture makes use of numerous water as a result of it takes numerous water to develop nearly something.

“Even with city water use, the bulk is for landscaping, the bulk goes to crops,” he stated. “And there’s a motive for that — crops want a lot of water, and that’s simply the best way it’s. … Meals programs require water.”

The suggestions the report outlined for Newsom and state companies embrace ending new gasoline and oil drilling and banning new mega-dairies; guaranteeing that water rights and allocations profit the general public; and strengthening groundwater protections.

On the federal stage, it urged Congress to go legal guidelines such because the Water Affordability, Transparency, Fairness and Reliability Act that may “totally fund our water and wastewater programs, put water programs again within the management of the general public, assist guarantee water entry and affordability, and restore the dedication of the federal authorities to defending water.”

Bhakta stated California’s water provide points name for a rethinking and restructuring of how water will get used within the state. “Our major level is that we have to put on a regular basis Californians earlier than the income of fossil gas corporations and large agricultural firms.”