[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 5/20/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

May 20, 2009

 

2. Supply –

 

 

Kawamura: Agriculture faces big challenges

Chico Enterprise Record – 05/20/09

By HEATHER HACKING - Staff Writer

 

CHICO — Agriculture faces big challenges, both globally and in the state, said California Secretary of Agriculture A.G. Kawamura, who was a guest of the Chico Rotary Club Tuesday.

 

With the budget problems, the "morale and mood" in Sacramento is low.

 

"I would like to tell you there's a lot of good things ahead," Kawamura said, but he concluded what he did not want to do is "sugarcoat it."

"Change is something you do or have done to us," he continued.

 

Huge challenges are ahead for agriculture. In the United States, 2 percent of the population is involved in producing food. The other 98 percent is involved in eating, he said.

 

One issue in the mix is that there are "some people who like their food a certain way and want to dictate how it should show up on the table," Kawamura said. "That's an enormous part of the problem for people producing food."

 

He said the problem is similar with energy production. With all the different ways to create energy, some "people are trying to legislate which ones exist," instead of relying on the free market.

 

"There are 2 billion people on the planet who would just like to have food on the table and be able to turn on a light switch," Kawamura said.

The world population is increasing rapidly, pushing the need to double food output by 2050. Kawamura said that prediction exists regardless of global climate change.

 

"Our challenge is to reshape what ag is in the next century," he said.

During his talk with Rotary, Kawamura used "the tale of two countries" to demonstrate options for change.

Australia has been experiencing a drought for the past 12 years, which has seen agricultural production drop — 40 percent for dairy, 60 percent for beef and 98 percent in rice production.

 

While Australia is prone to drought, there was no planning before this prolonged drought to see how to work through it, he noted.

Now, the country's rural economy is collapsing.

 

The Australian government is cracking down on things like washing cars, or growing rice, and working on reservoirs and water desalination.

But farmers have gone "belly-up," and moved to urban areas.

 

"What would we do in year three (of drought) if we knew it would be a 12-year drought?" he said.

 

An entirely different story is playing out in The Netherlands, he said, where 60 percent of the people live below sea level.

 

Kawamura said he had a chance to talk with engineers from the Netherlands who had been working on problems in Louisiana.

In the 1950s a flood devastated the Netherlands, leading to a massive construction project that gives the main sea wall a flood risk of once every 10,000 years.

"What do we want to do in California?" Kawamura asked.

 

The state has problems including flood, drought, lack of snow pack, and many more.

 

Kawamura said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has tried to build infrastructure over the past five years.

 

"He grew up in Austria after World War II. He understands what happens when there is no electricity and only local food," Kawamura said.

But there area a number of opportunities.

 

For example, with agriculture, there are a number of options for an ag/energy link.

 

In the San Joaquin Valley, dairy digesters may someday be widespread, turning manure into energy, he said.

Prunings and other ag byproducts can produce energy, as can forest undergrowth, he continued.

 

"The San Joaquin Valley could be a net energy producer," he said.

 

However, now in the state, there are 400,000 acres that are not planted due to a "regulatory drought."

 

Kawamura said there needs to be more thought about how to get water through the system, "rather than just turn off the tap."

 

In southern parts of the state, many believe that some day there won't be water delivered over the Tehachapi Mountains.

 

However, in future generations Kawamura predicted all ocean communities will rely on desalinated ocean water. He also predicted we "will learn how to use that technology inland."

 

The same is true of other technologies that can be adopted.

"The alternative is Australia," Kawamura said. #

http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_12409056

 

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