Unless you've driven through it, it's hard to fathom California's vast agricultural lands. It comes in the form of miles upon countless miles of immaculately laid out fields, orchards and vineyards. It's why California provides fully half of America's supply of fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts. We in Canada also get our share of this bounty.
What's unclear is how much longer this will last.
America's new energy secretary, Nobel Prize winning scientist Steve Chu warns that, if global warming continues, California's agricultural production could literally be wiped out by the turn of the century. From The Christian Science Monitor:
Mr. Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who ran the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory before joining the Obama administration, said that warming temperatures could eliminate up to 90 percent of the Sierra snowpack, which provides water to many of the state’s 76,000 farms.
“I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen,” he told the newspaper. “We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California.”
“I don’t actually see how they can keep their cities going,” he added.
California is now entering its third consecutive year of massive drought. There have been several reports of agricultural cutbacks this year.
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/02/05/energy-secretary-climate-change-could-wipe-out-calif-farming/
Just one more reason why the shipping of food 2000 miles is insane. In 1950 Vancouver Island grew 75% of its food. Today 6%. We have to start now and work fast to restore our food security by growing it locally. To hell with corporate agriculture!
ReplyDeleteAmen to that Larry. In "Heat," George Monbiot takes a real poke at Nigella over her insistence on exotic foodstuffs imported from the far ends of the world. It's a tidy burn on Queen Voluptuous herself.
ReplyDelete