California's Water - Agriculture

Last time, in this series on California's drought, I talked about the distribution of California's water and how "environmental" uses get 50% of all the water.  This time I'll talk about the next largest allocation of water in California which is agriculture.  Agriculture uses 40% of California's water leaving only 10% for urban use.

[Note: Sometimes this statistic is reported as 80%.  When this happens they choose to ignore the 50% of California's water that is not diverted for man's use.  Whether it's 40% agriculture / 10% urban or 80% agriculture / 20% urban the statistic is the same, a 4:1 ratio.]

Some people, especially people in California who are required to conserve water, will get annoyed that agriculture gets so much water.  If only farmers would use less water then there would be plenty for the rest of us.  It's my hope to defend the farmer and enlighten the average person on this situation.

Obviously those farmers are not just wasting the water, they are using it to grow food.  The same food you and I eat in the grocery store.  And when I say "we" I'm talking about everyone in the US and a large number of people in the world.  Whereas the midwest grows tons of corn and grain, the vast majority of fruits, vegetables, and nuts are grown in California.  Here is a very small partial list of the largest crops grown in California.

• Peaches
• Plums (and prunes)
• Grapes (and raisins)
• Figs
• Apricots
• Strawberries
• Apples
• Oranges
• Nectarines
• Dates
• Kiwi
• Lemons
• Melons
• Tomatoes
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Carrots
• Onions
• Garlic 
• Celery
• Mushrooms
• Lettuce
• Artichokes
• Peppers
• Avocados
• Olives
• Asparagus
• Almonds
• Walnuts
• Pistachios

If you live in the US and you eat these foods, chances are it came from California.  Many of these items are grown almost exclusively in California.

In addition to the above, California is the second largest grower of cotton.  Also, California produces 90% of all the wine made in the US.

Oh, and let's not forget things like milk, beef, chicken, eggs, sheep (and wool), pork, and turkey.  Yep, you guessed it, California produces the majority of that as well.


In these lists, did you see anything you enjoy eating?  Chances are the majority of the food you eat, regardless of where you live in the US, comes from California.  So hopefully you see the importance of the agriculture sector and giving water to farmers.  Without water for California farmers everyone's food would be significantly more expensive!


Ok, so farmers are important - but do they have to use so much water to grow our food?  Well believe me when I say that farmers have long been doing EVERYTHING they can to cut water use.  When growing food is your job, and water is scarce and expensive, you do everything possible to make the most of it.  If you think your water bill is high, image the water bill for a farmer!  They buy their water by the acre-foot.  Several decades ago 1 acre-foot of water might have cost $50.  Now that same acre-foot of water might cost $300, $500, even as high as $1000.  This is why, long ago, farmers switched to drip-irrigation systems, smarter watering practices, changing crops to those that require less water, using reclaimed water, etc.

So it is true that agriculture uses 4 times as much water as urban uses here in California, but hopefully you understand the importance of that water and believe that farmers are doing everything they can to make every last drop count.

Next time I'll finally talk about water use in the home.