The floors of Southern California’s Imperial Valley are covered with a blanket of crops. A patchwork of vibrant greens brought to life by the Colorado River in a desert sunlit landscape.
But as decades of drought dry out the western U.S. and once-strong rivers shrink, a handful of farmers won’t get as much water as all of Nevada and Arizona combined. Questions have been raised as to why it is allowed.
“We average less than two inches (five centimeters) of rain per year,” fourth-generation farmer Andrew Leimgruber told AFP.
“If the waters of the Colorado River hadn’t come here, it would be uninhabited, uncultivated, and deserted.”
This valley, along with Yuma, Arizona, is an important part of America’s huge agricultural sector, a business that generates about $2 billion a year and produces most of the vegetables America eats in the winter.
Farmers here also grow alfalfa, a forage crop that supplies beef and dairy ranchers.
-Ancient Agreement-
The land here is always fertile, but always dry.
The pioneers who built the West realized that the Imperial Valley, with its permanent sunshine, could produce year-round crops to feed its growing population, as long as they could keep their fields watered. rice field.
Their solution was to build an 80-mile (130-kilometer) canal from the Colorado River and lead the race for rights to the Colorado River.
An agreement signed more than a century ago allows Imperial Valley farmers to use 3.1 million acre feet of water each year. That’s about 70% of the water California is allowed to use.
An acre-foot is an acre covered with water that is one foot deep, which is approximately 326,000 gallons (1.23 million liters), or about half the size of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
But with human-induced climate change exacerbating the drought, which has now lasted more than 20 years, the river is struggling to keep up with demand.
Forty million people in Western countries, including some of America’s largest cities, use it, but they say it needs to be curtailed.
A Los Angeles resident was fined last year for overwatering his garden and forced to take short showers instead of baths.
The predicament has led suburban homeowners to survey brown lawns and put them at odds with nearby farmers.
Tina Shields, of the Imperial County Irrigation District, said, “As the river’s largest water user, we’re targeted because it’s an easy fix.
“We are not going to sacrifice communities for urban sprawl, urban development or any other area.”
In any event, many of the people who complain about farmers using water are happy to fill their refrigerators with the food they produce.
“We grow 500,000 acres of crops a year, which feeds our country and other countries, so it is especially important for our communities and economies.”
– “Never miss work” –
Despite its abundant water resources, Imperial County is one of the poorest areas in California and cannot survive without agriculture.
Rural workers, mostly Latinos, come from large areas across the Mexican border, dozens of miles away, to earn money in the fields.
“There is no shortage of jobs here,” says Ramon Cardenas, who has struggled for 30 years with summer temperatures regularly exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).
Some farmers signed long-term leases with power generation companies to replace their crops with solar panels.
They may not be using water anymore, but they are not providing jobs either.
Cardenas hopes the trend won’t spread.
“We rely on this,” he says, gesticulating at the crew picking lettuce.
– Productive land –
Despite having a very wet California winter, the Imperial Valley hasn’t had much rain this year.
Leimgruber sprinklers spray hundreds of liters (gallons) of water across fields, he claims, so they are often used.
Even thirsty alfalfa, about 15 percent of which is exported, he says, is essential for a country that consumes a lot of meat and dairy.
“California is the top dairy-producing state in the country because of our ability to plant alfalfa in the Imperial Valley,” he says.
“A lot of Americans think they can’t see empty shelves. It’s areas like this that really feed the country and I think we need to protect them.” I have.”
And he argues that if Imperial Valley doesn’t produce alfalfa, other suppliers will simply step in and fill the void.
Why should he and his fellow farmers miss it?
“People don’t realize how productive this land is,” he says.
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