Californians need to worry about food security, says commentary

From the San Francisco Chronicle, this commentary by A.G. Kawamura, the secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture:

At a time when people are deeply concerned about our dependence on imported oil, we should also be concerned about increasing our state’s dependence on imported food. In fact, our ability to feed our state could be seriously threatened by problems such as a long-term drought, the state’s aging water delivery and supply system, and court-ordered water supply cuts.

When people talk about food security, it’s normally a social justice topic at international conferences on hunger and famine. But it’s a term that we’re hearing more in California as population growth, along with land use and water policies, puts more pressure on this state’s agricultural industry. Rather than referencing worries about global food shortages, food security for Californians is about whether our state can continue to be the nation’s top food producer.

One of the major threats to the state’s farming industry is our lack of water. California’s drought, combined with court-ordered cuts in water deliveries, is threatening our food production.

Because of the water shortage, growers are cutting back on production, fallowing land and stumping trees. The drought has cost the state more than $250 million in lost plantings and 80,000 acres of crops this year alone. And that doesn’t include the huge amount of idle farmland that hasn’t been planted in the past few years because of an unpredictable water supply.

Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

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