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Bacher/Carter vs. Wade on Westlands agriculture – who’s statistics are right?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 11, 2010 at 8:03 am

Yesterday, Mark Wade of the California Farm Water Coalition responded to Dan Bacher’s recent commentary about the economic value of Westlands agriculture. What’s at issue here is how these statistics have been interpreted. Jeff, Director of the Business Forecasting Center and Associate Professor, Eberhardt School of Business, University of the Pacific posts this response, taking a look at the numbers of both of the commentaries:

“A few weeks ago, environmental advocates Dan Bacher and Lloyd Carter, published some data and rough calculations about Westlands Water Districts economic contributions.

They make one good point, that Westlands is about 0.25% of U.S. agricultural production, so risks to Westlands production is hardly a national food security crisis. In fact, I think this number actually overstates their national importance, because there are numerous substitution opportunities.

In the next part of their essay, they overreach with some very rough calculations intended to argue that Westlands makes no net contribution to the economy. … “

Continue reading this post at the Valley Economy blog by clicking here.

Dan Bacher sort-of responds to Mark Wade’s commentary here at IndyBay.org – you can find both Bacher’s and Wade’s commentary in this post.

January 11, 2010 · Filed Under Westlands Water District

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