San Joaquin farmer: ‘This year was bad — next year may be worse’

As any New Englander will tell you — especially farmers — mitigation of risks, avoiding obvious pitfalls of pretending it’ll all be alright on the day, and especially assuming anything when it comes to outside influences (you know the saying… assume makes an “ass out of U and me”) — these are the only ways to keep your business thriving and your house from being taken away. Guessing is a dumb way to plan for your future.

When we lived in Amenia just down the road from Millerton and Lakeville and nearest to Kent, we had a small farm. During nearly 20 years there we had one tornado (the first ever in our valley in 175 years), two FEMA-declared disasters (flooding in February that filled the Ten Mile River valley bank-to-bank), five days of -16 degree weather (that killed 50-year-old fruit trees), a summer drought with 10 days over 105 degrees, too many lightening strikes to keep count of and, worst of all, usually absolutely no idea of what the next winter/spring/summer or fall would bring. Now, many people would say this is just nature cycling, absolutely normal.

It may once have been, spaced out over 150 years, but all that happened in a 20-year period. It is the frequency and impact of huge swings of change that nature and our environment cannot take.

This year, if you listen carefully, you will hear farmers who produce 65% of all the food you eat talking about the winter — farmers from east and west of the Rockies, farmers from east and west of the Sierra Nevadas, all of whom depend on well and running water to grow crops. 

I live now at the base of the Mogollon range (bottom of the Rockies) and for the last five years there has been a shortfall of snowpack — how short? Zero, nada, nothing. Normally, in Hummingbird Pass in the Mogollons up until the 90s, there was 16 feet of snowpack by end of winter. Between 2000 to 2009 there was a shortage to 6 to 8 feet. In the last few years the snowpack after winter was zero. 

Farmers in the San Joaquin Valley in central California have become terrified at this problem, snowpack of the Sierra Madres there was zero as well. All of them are drilling deeper and deeper wells, tapping into the last water reservoirs underground — some wells already go below 1,500 feet. 

Why should San Joaquin worry you? Thirty percent of all the fruit, onions, lettuce and other vegetables that are served in America come from there. Half of the trains trundling across the country carry that produce.

Here’s something to remember as well: 40% of all employed workers in America are working in or linked to the food and beverage industry. If the crops fail, the workers will be laid off — pickers, stackers, truckers, train drivers, supermarket employees. 

If climate change hammers us again this winter the economy — remember 40% of all workers — will falter again. And, as that farmer in the title said, “Next year may be worse.”

Isn’t it time to stop guessing or assuming it is all nature’s normal course and try to mediate and  remedy the problems? We build oil pipelines at the drop of a hat to feed cars. Couldn’t we build water pipelines to actually feed our children — taking flood waters and distributing this asset? Couldn’t we actually switch to sustainable energy to stop the breaking of the Earth’s climate systems and calm things down? If not now, when? Soon, the snow won’t fall in the mountains and food will triple in price and become scarce. Will people pay attention only then, or is it all too late already?

 

Writer Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now resides in New Mexico.

Latest News

Amenia Town Board continues cannabis “opt-in” discussion

AMENIA — Preliminary discussion over whether or not the town will “opt in” to state regulations that guide the opening and operation of a local cannabis dispensary continued at the regular meeting of the Town Board on Thursday, March 21.

Town Supervisor Leo Blackman introduced the discussion, noting that to move ahead on zoning questions related to location of a dispensary, the board might need the services of a town planner.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tuning up two passions under one roof

The Webb Family in the workshop. From left: Phyllis, Dale, Ben and Josh Webb, and project manager Hannah Schiffer.

Natalia Zukerman

Magic Fluke Ukulele Shop and True Wheels Bicycle Shop are not only under the same roof in a beautiful solar powered building on Route 7 in Sheffield, but they are also both run by the Webb family, telling a tale of familial passion, innovation and a steadfast commitment to sustainability.

In the late ‘90s, Dale Webb was working in engineering and product design at a corporate job. “I took up instrument manufacturing as a fun challenge,” said Dale. After an exhibit at The National Association of Music Merchants in Anaheim, California, in 1999, The Magic Fluke company was born. “We were casting finger boards and gluing these things together in our basement in New Hartford and it just took off,” Dale explained. “It was really a wild ride, it kind of had a life of its own.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Robert Cray’s soulful blues coming to Infinity Hall

Robert Cray

Photo provided

Blues legend Robert Cray will be bringing his stinging, funky guitar and soulful singing to Infinity Hall Norfolk on Friday, March 29.

A five-time Grammy winner, Cray has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and earned The Americana Music Awards Lifetime Achievement for Performance. He has played with blues and rock icons including Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, The Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton and many more.

Keep ReadingShow less