Another Reason to Plant a Garden This Year

Consumers may pay more for spring lettuce and summer melons in grocery stores across the country now that California farmers have started abandoning their fields in response to a crippling drought.

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This reminds me of Kunstler’s rant about the ‘3,000-mile salad.’   We rely on areas like California’s Central Valley for fruits & vegetables more than most Americans realize.  Economies of scale are great when they work in our favor, but the flip side is that when these huge farms fail to deliver the crops we expect from them, we have few other options to explore.

This is also starting to bring water resource conflicts to the front of the news as well:

With such a grim outlook, many California farmers including Giacone are investing millions to drill down hundreds of feet in search of new water sources.

Depending on how much it rains this winter, federal water supplies could be slashed down to nothing this year, forcing farmers to rely solely on brackish well water. But the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation won’t make an official decision until late February, said Ron Milligan, the agency’s Central Valley operations manager.

Since it isn’t raining, farmers that are trying to stay in business are drilling further and further down to find & drain underground reservoirs.   For those that may not know, the term ‘brackish’ indicates that there’s more salt in the water than in normal freshwater, which means that in order to survive, the farmers are increasing the salinity in their fields by irrigating from this source… extracting perhaps more yields over the next few years but drastically reducing the long-term fertility of the fields.

It’s been a cold winter here, but one of the things I’m thankful for is that I live in a state with abundant fresh water… assuming we can stop polluting it.

Hail to the Chief

It’s been a busy January for me, so I apologize for the lack of posts.

Today is a momentous day in America.  We inaugurate a new president.  He’s well-spoken, educated, telegenic, has an attractive wife, two cute kids and a mandate for change.   The main differences from past presidents?  The color of his skin and an exotic name.

If nothing else, Obama’s installation as president should give hope to every child that they can achieve pretty much anything they want to if they are willing to work hard enough to get it.

I approach today’s transfer of power as a good thing and as a historic event, but without the sense of jubilation that many in this country have.   I’m very glad to see Bush gone.  From the standpoint of the average American citizen, his policies have ranged from mediocre to terrible.  The best thing one can say about his administration is that there was not another terrorist attack on US soil after 9/11.  How much of that is due to his policies is a matter open for debate.  With Obama as president, it will be hard for him to not improve foreign relations with most of the rest of the world.

My main worry with the incoming Obama team deals with the economy.  We’re still in serious trouble here, and I don’t think continuing to shovel debt at the problem will work.   That is the approach being forwarded by the Obama economic team, though.   We may see a short-term economic bounce, but over the longer haul I don’t think it will have lasting effect.   The measure of the man will be in how fast Obama recognizes this and changes policy because of it.  If he follows the Bush/Paulson plan of just continuing to throw bad money after worse money, then I will be sorely disappointed.    I voted for Obama because under all of the ‘change’ claptrap he seemed to be thoughtful, intelligent, and pragmatic.  If he cannot break out of the Keynesian economic approach if that fails to work, then we’re all in for a turbulent ride.

I fear that the historic impact of Obama’s election may be swept away by both current events and extremely elevated expectations for his administration.  Some folks are simply happy to have a new face in the White House while others seem to be expecting that we’re all going to have  our money problems magically go away and we’ll get a free pony to boot.  We have dug ourselves into a deep hole, and getting out will be long, hard and messy.

Those are worries for another day, though.  For today, I’m content that the old regime is being swept out and we have a chance to move forward in many areas.  Enjoy the day.