Here’s why farm water use reports are exaggerated By Amrith Gunasekara
In that case, the environment receives 80% of all the state water, while agriculture re- ceives 15%. The unprecedented allocation of water to the environment over food pro- duction highlights how California’s leader- ship designated basic food and economic security as a secondary priority. Many other developed and developing nations have a strong focus on agriculture and water allocations because they know that locally produced food is more afford- able. It is better for the environment be- cause less transportation of food means less greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel use. Local food production also means more local employment. It is disappointing that California, the fifth-largest economy in the world, does not prioritize its agricultural food produc- ers, ensuring that our farmers and ranch- ers have the water they need to sustain California’s population. Our state and federal agencies can un- doubtedly do a better job of capturing more water. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s execu- tive order to expand the state’s capacity to capture storm runoff in wet years by facil- itating groundwater recharge projects is a positive step. And California needs to build long-overdue water storage infrastructure approved by voters. Meanwhile, the next time you read an article that says agriculture uses 80% of the water in California, remember how wildly out of context that figure is. Once more, ag- riculture gets 15% of average annual water that reaches California. And farmers are conserving water, producing even more with less while providing for all of us. (Amrith Gunasekara, Ph.D., is director of science and research for the California Bountiful Foundation, an affiliate 501(c)(3) of the California Farm Bureau. He may be reached at agunasekara@cfbf.com.)
Where does California’s water go?
You may have heard it repeatedly through local and national news outlets
50% - uncaptured water in environment 15% - agriculture share of captured water 4.5% - urban share of captured water 30.5% - environmental share of captured water
or from organi- zations critical of California’s agri- cultural water use. At the height of a historic drought in 2015, for example, The Washington Post published a report titled “Agriculture is 80% of water use in
80.5% total environmental water
Amrith Gunasekara
Source: Public Policy Institute of California and California Department of Water Resources.
California.” And a 2022 report by Food and Water Watch, titled “These industries are sucking up California’s water and worsening drought,” again noted that, “in California, 80% of our water goes toward agriculture.” Really? Before we explain just how much that 80% figure is taken out of context, this fact is worth noting: Water for farmers in California produces by far America’s larg- est food supply, including staples that are affordable, safe, nutritious and essential for our daily lives. Now back to percentages. An internet search with the keywords “agriculture wa- ter use in California” provides information from universities and research organiza- tions, which highlight that agriculture uses 40% to 50% of water in California. But those numbers are derived from the state’s “cap- tured” water, which varies widely. For exaple, 2006 was a wet year when the state received more than it could capture and hold, and 2014 was a dry year when it got a fraction of normal moisture. Wet and dry years are expected to get more unpredictable—and extreme—as climate change intensifies. Regardless of wet or dry years, academia
Farming in California produces the largest share of America’s food supply. And despite descrip- tions of agriculture as a major water user, the majority of California water stays in the environment.
and leading water organizations recog- nize that agriculture uses about 30 million acre-feet of water to irrigate some 9 million acres of California food production, with groundwater used in combination with surface water. Our farmers lead in adoption of low volume irrigation methods, such as drip, subsurface drip, and microirrigation sys- tems on more than 50% of irrigated acres. While 30 million acre-feet may seem like a lot, we must consider the total amount of water the state gets in precipitation. That number is 200 million acre-feet. Therefore, agriculture uses 12% of that water in a wet year and 29% in a dry year. The environment—streams and rivers— gets 26% in a wet year, more than double that of agriculture, and 21% in a dry year, 8% less than farming. In a wet year with above-average precipi- tation, about half of the total water the state receives is captured in its reservoirs. With around 104 million acre-feet captured in a wet year, agriculture’s share is about 30%.
In a dry year, that share could increase to 40% to 50%, an amount often referenced by academia and research organizations for agricultural use. According to the 2013 California Water Plan, a large amount of uncaptured water is due to evaporation, evapotranspiration (evaporation from agricultural and non- agricultural native vegetation), ground- water subsurface outflows, natural and incidental runoff, and precipitation that is added to the soil. Realistically, this should be considered “environmental” water as well, since this water is being released into the environment. This water includes high flows during storm events that are not captured in the state, as California experienced in January. It is unclear why this water is neither con- sidered “environmental” in the water plan and state reports nor included in alloca- tions for water distribution among agri- culture, the environment and urban use. Suppose uncaptured water were to be considered in the environmental portfolio.
VOL. 50, NO. 12
March 22, 2023
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