Central Valley Farm Girl
I feel blessed that I was raised in the cornucopia of the Central Valley. I was a farm girl. With a seemingly never ending supply of water, my parents grew an abundance of fresh vegetables on a half acre of land. What they didn’t grow was available from a farm just up the road. I can remember riding home with the new produce, inhaling the sweet aroma coming from a crate of peaches while popping a few hastily dusted off grapes into my mouth.
Now, after years of drought mixed with the worries of endangered fish and water sucking subdivisions, the amount of water pumped out the Sacramento Delta has put the Central Valley’s $20-billion a year agriculture industry in danger. Protecting salmon and housing is important, but when weighed against the impact the lack of water is having on valley farms, how do we determine which is the more important?
I fear that many of those who live in the San Francisco Bay area may not realize that the concern is not just for the financial losses of the corporate farmer. Family farmers, migrant workers, and the numerous businesses that support agriculture may disappear. The Central Valley could become dotted with ghost towns, and imported produce in the Bay Area could become a luxury.
I am ready to support a plan or legislation that may be proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein. She is working hard to help ease the problem.
Take a look at the AgJobs Bill.