California Farmers Begin Selling Water Instead Of Crops

Due to water scarcity in California, farmers started selling waters instead of crops. Check out the article we found over at Natural News.

(NaturalNews) California farmers are making more money selling water than planting their fields in some cases. The rice industry in the Sacramento Valley has really been struggling with this year’s drought. Some farmers are choosing not to plant this year and are cashing in on their water rights instead. This controversial move on the part of the farmers is not a cut and “dry” deal. “In the long term, if we don’t make it available we’re afraid they’ll just take it,” said Charlie Mathews, a fourth-generation rice farmer with senior rights to Yuba River water.

Matthews and other local farmers “have agreed to sell 20 percent of their allotment to Los Angeles’s Metropolitan Water District as it desperately searches to add to its dwindling supply,” reported CBS San Francisco.

This kind of arrangement is gaining in popularity especially as water prices continue to climb, making the water more valuable than the returns from crops.

Legal Challenge

“California has neglected its groundwater,” said Barbara Vlamis, director of the non-profit AquAlliance. Her group is suing to stop the water transfer because of the mounting groundwater concerns. “You’re putting an added stress on the groundwater basin,” Vlamis said. “In the last year alone, there have been wells in Glenn County that have dropped 32 feet. Nineteen feet in Butte County.”

Vlamis believes the problems stem from the fact that groundwater is not regulated in California, so state and federal agencies don’t understand the impact that transfers can have. “It’s shoddy,” she said. “The agencies that are so casual about moving water out of here need to truly analyze what they’re doing to this region.”

As the lawsuit moves forward, all parties involved become increasing nervous about how this will be resolved. Those that have cut huge water deals and are ecstatic to be able to profit in spite of the terrible drought are not excited about the prospect of losing that sale. There doesn’t seem to be a win-win solution regardless of the outcome of the legal battle.

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Read full article: California farmers begin selling water instead of crops as drought reaches critical stage