California Citrus and Avocado Farming Is in Peril

[MineralMan]

My late parents sold their 15-acre citrus and avocado farm just before they died in January of this year We had all encouraged them to sell it sooner, but they just couldn't bear the idea. Anyhow, after they died, I saw the sale through to its closing three months later, as the executor of their estate and trustee of the family trust. They loved the place, but it had stopped being profitable about three years ago.

It is located in Southern California in a valley about 25 miles from the Pacific Ocean and about 50 miles from Los Angeles. It's a great climate for citrus and avocados, but there's a catch. Both crops require irrigation. Since the 1970s, the annual rainfall totals in that area have dropped from 30" per year to about 12" per year for the past few years. The little valley they're in has a massive aquifer deep below the surface, so water gets pumped up from that aquifer for irrigation.

In recent years that aquifer has become accessible only through deeper and deeper wells. A seasonal river and rocky soil feeds the aquifer, but that river hasn't been running much for the past 5-10 years, so there it is.

The citrus and avocado farms in the area now need to irrigate more and more often, due to rising temperatures. That need for more irrigation is driving costs of farming up to the point that it's almost impossible to make a profit from the crops.

The new owner of that property was very excited to buy it, and has big plans for it, but rising water costs may force her to change her plans drastically. You can't operate any kind of farm on a negative net profit for very long. I feel bad for her, but this has been the trend in that valley for some time. Fortunately for my parents' children and grandchildren, we don't have to worry about farming any longer. Unfortunately for the new owner, she does have to worry.

Climate change. It's real. It has an enormous impact on farming. If it doesn't rain, you must irrigate or your crops will die. For citrus and avocados, some of the trees are decades old, but can die in one season if they don't get enough water. So, the choices are very limited. Dead trees don't produce a crop.

Does this matter? Are oranges and avocados essential crops? They are not, but farmers of all kinds in California, one of the most productive agricultural states in the USA, are facing the same problem. Less rain falls each year. Every Summer gets hotter and hotter. Every crop in California requires irrigation now, but the water is running out, and becoming more and more costly.

I'm glad my family is out of the farming business, but I'm very, very concerned about where things are going. It's not looking good. We will all feel the impact from this in higher food prices and scarcer supplies.

[PortTack]

1. It is very sad. You know it's dry when desert saguaro cactus can't make it. Cactus young and old

Are simply falling over

[MineralMan]

2. Yes. I was born in Pinal Count, Arizona, and went there a couple of times per year

to visit my grandparents when I was young. The cactus was amazing. It's very sad to see even a plant that is wonderfully adapted for desert life dying.

[EYESORE 9001]

3. I wonder which will occur first...

The southwest desert becomes too hot for human habitation or war breaks out over running pipelines from the Great Lakes to that region.

[MineralMan]

5. We may live long enough to find out.

I'm not sure there is any practical or economical way to get water from the Great Lakes to the West Coast. The cost of that water would be enormous, actually. Two huge mountain ranges stand between the two localities.

[EYESORE 9001]

8. Won't stop them from trying, I'm afraid

A NASA scientist was in Cleveland, touting that exact thing. Needless to say, it didn’t resonate with Great Lakes folk.

[MineralMan]

11. It would be cheaper to build nuclear power plants to

supply power for desalinization of seawater, actually. Neither are good choices, I'm sure. Neither are probably feasible in the short timeframe people are facing.

[Mr.Bill]

26. I've lived in California for 60 years.

This drought isn't our first rodeo. The problem is what usually happens is we get a few years of drought, everyone starts discussing and fighting over solutions, then it rains like crazy, everything floods, and everyone forgets about the problem. Our politics are always short sighted. Few politicians see past the next elections, and with term limits, it's even shorter. This is the second time in the last decade we've been here. Last time before that was the late 70s.

The more we've learned about the geology of the state, we've come to realize that in ancient history, we've had droughts that lasted over 1,000 years.

[chia]

31. Same although I remember the Miracle March of 1991 - it was epic.

[SWBTATTReg]

27. I've always wondered about why they couldn't bring in water from the Ocean next door,

and treat it, or even to transport annual flood waters from the Midwest (the Missouri, the Mississippi, other rivers), via pipelines to the west, store along the way in 1,000,000 gallon storage tanks every 10 miles or so (which are common now w/ the oil and gas industries, simply reuse for water or build new tanks), kind of like the rail lines in place now to the West from the rest of the USA).

Sure these may cost tens and/or hundreds of billions and billions or dollars but look at the cost of not doing this...the cost would range into perhaps trillions of dollars of lost infrastructure due to lack of water, etc. We made the interstate highways, the railways, and other infrastructure pieces to transport goods and such across back and forth in this country. We can do it for water, a simple liquid. Obviously the price/cost ratio is still not there, and I think that (IMHO) that legal agreements set in stone decades and perhaps even centuries ago have determined what happens today, even if bad for a majority of consumers.

How many homes now in the West rely on water imported or bought on the open markets? E.g., potable water all bottled anyways, so not an issue, and irrigation can be done more efficiently, via drip hoses, etc. (IMHO, via my reading on the subject matter). Sure, as I said before, it would be expensive, but wouldn't it be worth the cost versa losing millions of acres of farming, and worse?

As I said before, I've always wondered about the long legal fights in the west fought over water. Has this negatively impacted those who have priorities over water and as a result, has it redirected supply and demand over water artificially, that is, those that consume the most water at literally pennies (vs. an actual cost much higher) are not really paying the true cost of water they're using, thus putting the burden on everyone else? A direct impact over letting supply and demand drive water costs.

We've been really lucky being that we're in the Midwest, on the shores of many rivers (Mississippi, Missouri, other rivers in MO in Ozark land), thus for the most part, have plenty of water, but this year, we're having a drought, not much rain so plants are withered and/or dying (of course you all see this already out there West), but we really don't freak out too much, as this is usually a year to year thing, and thus next year, we'll probably get way too much rain, etc.

This is an interesting topic, and as I have family in Calif., AZ, and Colorado, I am always interested in these serious issues over something that seems so simple, yet so difficult, water.

[Mr.Bill]

32. Desalination and transport of enough water to support

the fifth largest agriculture system in the world (if California was a country) would probably cost hundreds of billions of dollars. It would probably be the largest public works project in the history of mankind.

[SWBTATTReg]

33. Yes, easily.

[PortTack]

22. Not sure who the nasa scientist was but a couple of engineers here on DU ran that one down after

The Az state senate asked if they could pipe Mississippi flood water to AZ. It’s not feasible. The psi, the size of the pipe and the 3000 ft almost vertical grade across the Rockies...alone would not make it possible.

The thread posted here by those that understand these things actually became pretty funny.
Not making fun of their water issues, I have family there..but seriously. They should have been looking into desalination a decade or more ago!!

[EYESORE 9001]

29. Here's the article

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/04/10/great-lakes-water-piped-southwest-our-future-says-nasa-scientist/100301326/

Great Lakers say, ‘come at me, bro!’

[marie999]

35. I am sure that Canada would not allow it.

[progree]

4. I gave my 18 acre vineyard in central California away in December 2016

after inheriting it in early 2004, to Population Connection. (Got a charitable gift annuity in return, and a limited tax deduction for 6 years and saved selling costs too. And avoided big capital gains taxes-- it had experienced nearly 5 fold increase in value over those nearly 13 years).

16 miles west of Fresno, 5 miles north of Kerman.

Pumping ground water to irrigate was causing very high electric bills... but fortunately not too many of the 13 years was like that. It was modestly profitable most years. They were slowly starting to implement ground water pumping regulations and nitrates restrictions, so it was getting more and more complicated. And more and more scary droughts.

I have no idea how its doing now. I'm sure glad I don't have to worry about it anymore.

[MineralMan]

9. Yes. Water Costs and Regulations Have Made Farming

a very iffy proposition these days. I was never involved in my parents' farming. They bought that farm after I was an adult. It was their dream. It worked out well for many years, but then the profitability started to decrease, until it went away altogether. It was sold, more or less, at the peak of such property value. That's good for their heirs, but not wonderful for the next generation on that land.

But, never mind...the new owner has been actively buying acreage in that valley. She knows the situation. Maybe she has a new plan for it.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Almonds need even more water. On Long Island we have...

several aquifers that are closely monitored, and NJ has lots of them with monitoring stations all over the state.

And there's that big one in the Midwest corn belt.

All that I know of are troubled, but the attitude is that we probably can't solve the problem, so why try...

.

[progree]

7. One gallon of water per almond, I read /nt

[jimfields33]

15. We need to stop eating foods that are bad for the environment

It’s horrible how avocados have become a thing. They are using more water then other veggies. Needs to stop. Same with almonds. For goodness sake it’s gotten so bad that they have almond milk. All of this needs to stop.

[frazzled]

17. Add to that list marijuana

Huge water consumption, and there have been issues with water theft in California.

To cultivate a single cannabis plant to harvest indoors requires about 450 gallons (1,710 liters), and about twice that much outdoors — several times greater than the daily water consumption of an individual in the U.S.

...

To avoid water costs, legal and illegal cultivators of cannabis in the United States thus often seek to use water from sources other than metered taps. In California’s Siskiyou County alone, illegal marijuana cultivators were estimated to expend about 1.5 to 2 million gallons (5.7 to 7.6 million liters) of unpaid water a day in 2014.

In the Emerald Triangle of Mendocino, Humboldt, and Trinity counties, ecologically-important water streams, on which threatened steelhead and salmon depend, were diverted to supply the cultivation of marijuana, with some 24 streams going dry due to the marijuana-cultivation-driven diversion and drought.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/04/12/pot-and-water-theft-and-environmental-harms-in-the-us-and-mexico/

[jimfields33]

23. Oh wow. What a mess.

Of course nobody thought of the damage to the environment when voting for it all over the country.

[MerryBlooms]

38. Same problem with illegal growers in southern Oregon.

Also a problem with legal growers... The diversity of crops has disappeared. We have pot, hemp and grapes. As someone who was born and raised in the Rogue Valley, it's heartbreaking. The legalization of pot has destroyed the crop diversity in this valley.

[aggiesal]

28. 1900 gals. per pound of Almonds ...

Compare that to
9.8 gals per pound for Strawberries
10.8 gals per pound for Tomatoes
12.2 gals per pound for Peaches

Here's a chart for gallons per 1 piece per crop.

[MineralMan]

10. Yes. I've known some almond farmers.

Farming is far more complicated than it once was. It's very tough for a small farmer to realize a profit these days.

[Sibelius Fan]

16. And a single walnut requires 5 gallons.

The problem with things that grow on trees is that you can’t stop watering the trees and let the crop go fallow for a season, an off-season or a year. The trees die. That’s one reason their water consumption is so high.

[WarGamer]

12. Ah hell...

Who woulda' thought that building megacities and farming in the desert with water from 300 miles away or drying underground reserves would end up in tears??

WHO... woulda' thunkit?

[Sibelius Fan]

18. That's not really the point. At all.

[Elessar Zappa]

24. If California agriculture fails,

the whole country will suffer. We’re in this together.

[WarGamer]

40. Grow things where the best climate is for that product.

Here's an example.

Arkansas grew the most Rice in the USA, California was 2nd.

Do you know how they GROW Rice?

They FLOOD the fields.

That might not be a problem in Arkansas, but it's a BIG problem in California. California doesn't HAVE the water.

Maybe Rice should be grown where the situations are BEST? Like Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Missouri?

You know... the places with water?

[Mr.Bill]

13. This whole country is about to find out

how much of their food comes from California, not to mention other agricultural products. This is something most of the country is clueless about.

[MineralMan]

14. Yes, indeed!

Most people have no idea how much food California grows.

[Mr.Bill]

20. Agriculture is the #1 industry in California.

It's even bigger than technology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_California

[Sibelius Fan]

19. Wha? CA only produces 25% of the produce in the USA.

It’s not like it’s a lot.

[Ferrets are Cool]

21. The west is drying up and the south is drowning in hurricanes and tropical depressions.

[oasis]

25. Wake up America!

[bucolic_frolic]

30. Not to stick up for retailers

but many supermarkets as well as big box stores are sourcing local farm products where they can. It simply must make sense from a cost perspective.

And of course many counties have set aside preserved farms with tax dollars and bond issues. Feeding locally must have been on some minds in some instances. In my locale they really don't produce much, I think they're more to support home values and quality of life, but some do have horses or raise soy beans.

I worry about forest fires, and swear the growing season is longer due to higher temperatures. Trees are growing more each season in my observations and estimates. Or maybe it's just exponential growth I'm witnessing. But I swear 7.5% growth each year has become 11%.

[Lancero]

34. If you don't have access to enough water for a crop, then it's not a good climate for that crop.

We need to adapt to this new climate. And the first step in that is recognizing that certain types of farming are no longer viable with a collapsing environment.

A end to cattle farming would be the most impactful change, in regards to conserving water. The biggest water sink in California isn't almonds, as much as the cattle industry pushes that idea, but rather all the water used to grow forage for cows.

This isn't to say that fruit, nut, and vegetable farming gets a pass. We are going to have to transition to more water efficient crops, but at the end of the day even the least water efficient crop is far more efficient than cattle.

[MineralMan]

36. Not enough water is a recent change.

They've been growing citrus there since the 1890s. Plenty of rain and shallow wells. Climate change.

[Lancero]

37. And we need to adapt to that change.

Starting by eliminating the largest water sinks, and then transitioning to more water efficient crops.

As I said before, not enough water for a crop, not the proper climate for that crop. Climate change doesn't care about how long that crop has, historically, been grown.

[MineralMan]

39. Ever been a farmer?

No?