A Fishy Tale (Farmers vs. fish in California. Americans develop bad habit of avoiding tough choices)

National Review ^ | 9/24/2009 | Victor Davis Hanson

[SeekAndFind]

Nearly a quarter-million acres worth of contracted federal irrigation deliveries have been cut from the big farms of the west side of the San Joaquin Valley in central California. The water in large part is being diverted to the salty San Francisco Bay and the delta to improve marine ecology.

The result of the cutbacks is that many crops in the San Joaquin Valley have gone unplanted. Farm income is down. Thousands of farm laborers are unemployed. Growers and workers are now livid at environmentalists, federal bureaucrats, and judges for worrying more about fish than about people and food growing.

Environmentalists counter that the real cause of the cutoff is an ongoing drought. They argue there are too many claims on too little fresh water with no margin of safety in dry years like this one. The problem is not just saving tiny delta smelt or salmon, but a larger one of living within our means and not polluting our fragile ecosystem.

[celestron71]

There was an article posted today on FR, sorry don’t have the link, in which he made all types of excuses for LGF. That, coupled with his down playing the crisis of no water for Farmers in CA and failing to even mention desalinization plants, the real solution to this problem, pretty much says to me VDH is losing it, OR, he never actually had it(actually it is more than that, I have noticed a decided left ward trend to his writing lately, IMO.)

[Waco]

Bad habit of eating, too.

[csmusaret]

You do know he has a farm about 35 miles from the place Sean Hannity broadcast his latest show about this issue right?

[Nick Danger]

All this should remind us that Americans have developed a bad habit of avoiding tough choices... Instead of making these bad/worse decisions, we dream on about a natural California, with plenty of rain, stuffed with 36 million affluent residents

The ability to entertain two contradictory courses of action at once, and to consider doing so a "solution to the problem," is a characteristic of the liberal mind. Told that welfare programs create a culture of dependency, the liberal will call for a program that hands out free money while simultaneously stimulating the desire to get a job. Told that affirmative action programs must necessarily discriminate against somebody if they are going to favor others, the liberal sees the solution in an "affirmative action program without quotas."

Liberals do not accept the fact that only in la-la land can two contradictory propositions be satisfied simultaneously.

This is why states run by liberals continuously over many decades end up bankrupt, with high unemployment and vast tracts of abandoned property. The liberals truly do not understand why this happens. They passed laws to have everything both ways... it all should have turned out wonderful. Instead they get Michigan. And soon, California.

[Tolik]

 

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Links:   

FR Index of his articles:	http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index
NRO archive:	http://author.nationalreview.com/?q=MjI1MQ==
Pajamasmedia:	http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/
His website:	http://victorhanson.com/

[Verginius Rufus]

Hannity was in Huron, CA. It may be about 35 miles from Selma, but VDH's point is that it's the western side of the valley which is being hurt by the cut-off. Huron is near I-5. Selma is on the eastern side of the valley on Hwy. 99.

VDH also makes it sound like a smaller number of acres are being left dry (his figure is half what Hannity was saying).

[csmusaret]

I was born in Selma and grew up in Pixley. I am well aware of where Selma and Huron are. My point is so does Hanson. Watching Hannity’s show leaves the impression that the entire valley is being cut off and Hanson just points out that that is not the case. I don’t know what LGF means, but I think VDH wrote a balanced piece here.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

We think that nuclear weapons are the ultimate weapons, they aren’t. FOOD is. For one of the bright alert readers out there, check how much surplus food there is in the United States, and then determine how many days we can live on it. Beware my friends.

[Tolik]

The point of this article shouldn't be that Californias use low flush toilets or take a dump outside under a tree to save water(oK, I added that)but that the state should dump the EPA and start building desalinization plants all along the coast, thus eliminating the water problem forever. This guy is also downplaying the total devastation that cutting the water off to these farmers is causing.

Downplaying?

VDH: The crisis is not over an entire valley, but instead a sizable part of it without regular irrigation deliveries. For those farmers and workers whose livelihoods depend on that parched acreage, the result is undeniably catastrophic.

He said that the "west side is not yet a “dust bowl", and "The majority of west-side land is still farmed" and "The crisis is not over an entire valley, but instead a sizable part of it". Sound to me as a fact check, so the opposite side won't be able to dismiss the proper claims as exaggeration.

The point of this article shouldn't be that Californias use low flush toilets or take a dump outside under a tree ...

You are misreading the article. What he is talking about is that Californians are leading the way in magical thinking. They want everything without any tradeoffs. And the real life comes out now with a reality check.

VDH:

... All this should remind us that Americans have developed a bad habit of avoiding tough choices. Californians could build more dams and more canals, and farm with adequate irrigation, but that would mean fewer natural flowing rivers, fewer fish, and saltier deltas.

Few, though, will honestly acknowledge, “I want 10,000 acres of almonds, but I realize that will mean a slightly saltier delta and less marine life,” or, on the flip side, “I vote for more delta smelt but understand that will mean fewer tomatoes.”

Instead of making these bad/worse decisions, we dream on about a natural California, with plenty of rain, stuffed with 36 million affluent residents (most of them crammed near Los Angeles or San Francisco).

Your point about Desalinization is a good one. But I don't expect any author cover everything I want the way I want. His point in many articles about California for quite awhile was that it's unsustainable, it's impossible to continue expecting the utopia (even in the paradise like California) without investing into infrastructure, energy development, by driving out the productive with high taxes, regulations etc,etc. He was talking on many occasions that whatever the previous generations built is being squandered quickly and the naturally rich state goes downhill way too fast.

[celestron71]

Yes, downplaying, he is trying to make out as if it only affects a small part of California and it effects the whole state, indeed it effects the whole country. The rest of your comment is not worth responding too. Have a good day.

[Verginius Rufus]

LGF = Little Green Footballs.

Hannity made it sound like the entire San Joaquin Valley was being turned into a dustbowl, but even his figure of 500,000 acres showed that was an exaggeration--640,000 acres would be 1,000 square miles (less than the area of Rhode Island).

[IbJensen]

Feinstein and her evil allies in our pathetic Congress is a true American Communist practicing similar actions as did Stalin against the Russian farming peasants in the Ukraine!

Stalin must be this despicable woman’s hero!

When will Californians awaken from their drugged sleep which we observers in the rest of America perceive as an Orwellian nightmare?

Down with Feinstein! Down with the central government’s drive to shove our nation into the pit that is pure communism!