The true fish story: How farmers are helping salmon
ByDannyMerkley Asafourth-generationSacramentoValley farmerandtheCaliforniaFarmBureau’sdi- rectorofwater resources fornearly14years, I have learned that California’s farmers
Still, the Washington Post depicts the Central Valley as a villainous “home to the state’s lucrative and politically powerful $42 billion a year agricultural industry.” The fact is that “industry” is made up in large part by tens of thousands of small family farms and ranches, including con- ventional and organic agriculture, that produces 400 commodities. California family farmers and ranch- ers feed much of this nation and others around the world because we are bless- edwith the climate and resources to pro- duce the healthiest food and farmprod- ucts in the world. We do so with more regulations in place than anywhere else in the world to protect the environment, our scarce natural resources and the farmworkers who plant, cultivate and harvest the food. In 2006 , Cal i fornia Pol ytechni c University, San Luis Obispo, conducted a study on regulatory costs for a lettuce grower and foundregulations cost $109.16 per acre—or 1.26%of production costs. In 2017, Cal Poly found the same grower’s regulatory costswereup to$977.30—8.9% of production costs. From my experience, farming and ranching is a great way tomake a life, but a tough way tomake a living. For many in agriculture, it is far from lucrative. But farmers are making sacrifices and, yes, working to protect the environment and salmon populations. Those so-called environmentalists should understand that the fight over wa- ter isnotbetweenfishand farms. Theyalso could stand to read up on what it takes to produce the food and get it from the farm to their forks. (Danny Merkley is director of water re- sources for theCaliforniaFarmBureau. He may be reached at dmerkley@cfbf.com.)
and ranchers are the real environ- mentalists. That title isn’t earned by some of the more extreme environ- mental groups or opportunists filing lawsuits or putting outmisinformation. The i r e f f o r t s s e e m e d t o b e
Danny Merkley
Supported by agriculture and the California Water Association, the River Garden Farms project uses rice fields as flood plains to develop food supplies for juvenile salmon populations.
on display last week in an in-depth Washington Post article, “California’s DisappearingSalmon,” that lapsed intothe all-too-familiarnarrativeabout “thepush- pull between farmers and environmental- ists over water.”Herewe go againwith that yarnabout thirsty farms killing the fish. The actual story is this: Real environ- mentalists in farming are developing an alternative regime for fixing the fish prob- lems inour rivers,whichavoids thecurrent hard path of litigation. Farmers are supporting solutions that reduce the burden on water users while also undertaking fish conservation efforts to address predator control, food supply andhabitat restoration. For example, con- sider these initiatives: • The Nigiri Project uses flooded rice fields rich in food and free of predators to raise juvenile salmon. • River GardenFarms and theNorthern California Water Association’s project, just south of Shasta Dam, features struc- tures known as refugia that are placed in the river to give juvenile salmon a place to rest, feed and seek protection from larger,
predatory fish. • The Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, inpartnershipwith local, stateand federal agencies, constructed the Market Street Bridge gravel project inRedding to restore salmon spawning habitat. • Food being grown in the Sacramento bypass releases critical nutrients into the fish-food-deprived Sacramento River. These are projects by farmers, ranch- ers and agricultural irrigation districts in partnership with universities and local, state and federal agencies as well as envi- ronmental organizations that truly want to help the environment. They are projects that look at ways to improve “functional flows” in rivers as opposed to strict flow-only numbers for environmental policy. They show great promise in near-term improvements for the environment, species and habitat. Releasingmore andmore water for fish survival isnotthesilverbullet.Blamingfarm- ersandranchers isa lazyman’sapproach. The Washington Post says “while
farmers have found ways to become more efficient with water use in recent decades, the agriculture industry is still usingmorewater than any other industry in California—about 40%”—of human uses. That’s the water use percentage ev- ery other developed country in theworld uses to produce food. But in California, the difference is this: Farmersandranchershave increasedcrop production per acre foot of applied water bymore than 43%since 1967. Yes, it is evident in recent decades that we are experiencing more frequent and longer drought periods, punctuatedby at- mospheric rivers that produce heavy pre- cipitation years inbetween.We are seeing our precipitation come in the formof rain with less snow in the Sierra. Yet California policymakers have done little to nothing to maintain, repair and adapt ourwater infrastructure that ismore than50 years old. Ifwe trulywant tobe cli- mate and water resilient for fish and peo- ple, we need to rebuild that infrastructure for today’s reality.
VOL. 48, NO. 35
September 22, 2021
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