Life in Mendota, Calif., where the jobless rate is 41 percent (drought)

[phantom power]

During this third year of drought, farmers on the west side are fallowing hundreds of thousands of acres and hiring fewer than half the workers they did two years ago. They blame the dry weather and federal environmental laws — meant to protect endangered species of fish — that have severely restricted how much water can flow into the west side.

With the prospect of more water shortages in the future, many farmers are shifting toward less water-dependent crops that don't require as many workers. That could prove devastating to hundreds, if not thousands, of families in west-side towns who have always depended on agriculture jobs.

(...)

If the water shortages continue, Wood says he and other farmers could soon be out of business. That means that west-side families who decide to stay may find fewer and fewer jobs.

"It's reminiscent of the Depression," said Silva, Mendota's mayor. "In those days you had soup lines, now you have food lines. This is a disaster area."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/65076.html

[tularetom]

1. The workers will get hurt the farmers not so much

Especially since its the wasteful irrigation practices of the farmers for the past 100 years that have made he entire area so vulnerable to drought. They've been using heavily taxpayer subsidized cheap water with no incentive to recirculate or conserve. They've gotten their buddies in congress to screw around with the land ownership limitations that were originally a condition of receiving the cheap government water in the first place. They've dumped their herbicide and nutrient laden tailwater into the streams and drains of the area and destroyed the quality of those waterways.

So if a few farmers go under, fuck 'em. In this part of the country we've sat here and watched this slow motion train wreck in progress for the past 50 years and done jack shit about it.

[phantom power]

2. I do not have it in my heart....

to say "fuck them," as they grow the food I eat.

I might be wrong, but my thinking on farming is that since food is more or less commoditized, farmers have been historically under intense pressure to do anything to minimize costs. If any one farmer tries to do the Right Thing, they get eliminated by the competition.

Hyperbolic discount function.

[tularetom]

3. You're thinking of the mom and pop farms

that the irrigation laws as written were supposed to support and encouraged. Like the one I lived on as a kid. At least my dad was smart enough to see the writing on the wall and get out before the corporate farms and "agribusiness" manipulated the water laws for their own benefit and forced the family farmers out of business.

Giving people free water does not encourage them to conserve water or develop efficient water delivery or planting practices.

Originally you could get reclamation water at a steep discount only if you owned less than 160 acres. Over the years, corporations managed to get those limitations altered and finally eliminated so now "farms" with holdings in the thousands of acre are able to buy water for pennies on the dollar of actual cost. You and I are paying the rest through taxes. This is the "bailout" that nobody thinks about.

And don't even get me started on how the corporate farms have thumbed their noses at immigration laws and contributed to our current problems with illegal immigration.

This are is a feudal economy with a small and powerful group of the very well off, a ginormous group of the very poor and very few of us in what might be considered a middle class.

We are the Appalachia of California.

[chill_wind]

4. K & R and more.. very bleak images...

"MENDOTA, Calif. — The customer seemed interested in a black blouse offered for $1 at the thrift store. But instead of buying it, she set it on the front counter.

Maybe tomorrow, she told the cashier, she would have the money. Or the next day. But not now.

"That is the way people are now," said the cashier, Alicia Reyes, as she watched the middle-aged woman walk out of the store. "They just come in here and look. They just come in here to kill the time. And then they take off."

Welcome to life in Mendota — the unemployment capital of California. With a 41 percent jobless rate, the town's social fabric is tearing at the seams. Alcoholism and crime are on the rise. To save money, some mothers wash and re-use disposable diapers. Unemployed men with nothing to do wander the streets and sit on benches.

The irony is obvious: In a large swath of the nation's most productive farming region, many struggle to fill their own cupboards."

[XemaSab]

5. Fuck Westlands

I just want to slap those fuckin' bitches. x(