The Loss of Farmland – Diminishing Of Our Food part 2

My goal is to emphasize the importance of local food production and encourage more people to get involved in the process. This will help us be better prepared to address food supply challenges, ensuring that people have access to food, regardless of their location. prior post.

Part 1 https://gardeningtheorganicway.com/food-for-thought/loss-farmland-diminishing-food/

Drought

California continues to lose farmland due to drought and the depletion of water tables. Despite whatever regulations get put into effect the water won’t be able to recover over the next twenty years. California has an ideal climate for fruits, vegetables and nuts. It provides almost half of the US consumption of these goods.

These commodities are distributed throughout the country to feed the US population. As the production from California declines, we will pay so much more for our food that only the elite will afford a diverse diet. Those on fixed incomes or retired can easily end up going hungry due to the tremendous increase in costs. This cost of food increase has already begun to happen in the year 2023. Learn how to grow your own food, purchase ‘Garden the Organic Way’ https://gardentheorganicway.etsy.com

Drought- Loss of Farmland

California has lost approximately one third of the river water due to drought. Resulting in the groundwater being pumped at double the rate. An article in the Los Angeles times reported that water depletion is so severe that “a million acres of cropland turn to dust because they have exhausted their supplies of readily available groundwater”. (LA times March 18. 2015, Bettina Boxall).

Solutions

Everyone agrees something has to be done but no one takes the lead. It’s a huge undertaking but it will only get bigger with time. America, it’s not a state issue, it’s a food issue! A state that provides so much food can’t be left alone to figure it out a solution. Sure, farmers have come together and are trying to implement ways to save water while watering their crops. They are also trying to see how to put water back into the aquifers. This isn’t any more about a few acres or a small loss of farmland.

We need greater initiative, intervention and cooperation. Be we republicans or democrats, we all need food. As Americans, we need to take action.

Countries like Israel have farms right on the desert, with lush trees, by using desalination plants and conserving water. To say “Oh, desalination too expensive” may be true, but it will just get more expensive with time. Farmers need water, and we have the technology to make it happen!

Hydraulic Fracking

This is a hot topic of great debate right now, for various reasons. Also, many other countries are banning fracking. Why? Multiple reasons, I’m sure, but my reason is water. According to the report from State Impact Pennsylvania, the fracking process takes 4.4 million gallons of water per well.  Translating this into usage: It takes 11,000 American families to use the same amount of water to drill and fracture one well. Six Olympic size swimming pools can be filled with that same water (source Dr. Jim Richenderfer, Susquehanna River Basin Commission; US EPA; Fracfocus.org).

Not only is the water in California being used at massive rates for fracking, in addition, there are high levels of contaminants left behind deep in the ground. Toxic chemicals are leached out in the process of fracking, which in turn contaminate nearby ground waters. Methane is found at disproportionate rates in nearby wells were fracking has taken place. Making these wells dangerous to use. The dangers to general health is huge, not to mention further loss of useable water.

There is an assumption that the contaminants will stay put and be “locked in”. Truly, we are either naïve or just plain ignorant to assume or think this is possible. Leaching takes place over time of everything that is on the surface of the soil. As more earthquakes occur, these contaminants will eventually end up in our groundwater and drinking water and then our food. If we have no water, we have no food.

Corporate Farming 

Corporate farming has been around for years making big profits. So what’s the problem? Native civilizations used as their agricultural practices the “slash and burn” method of agriculture. They burned the fields that were fallow and the like, thus providing the necessary nutrients for them to plant their crops. They were able to get one or two seasons of crops out of the process. Once the land no longer gave them a good yield they moved on to repeat the same process all over again. I make this analogy with corporate farming.

The problem is that land is no longer readily available. Land is privatized and we are highly overcrowded. That’s corporate farming in a nutshell. They use the land till it is dead, then buy new land and exploit the next one. The land is pumped with so much synthetic fertilizers, chemicals, GMO seeds, and the like to produce our food. Food is then filled with synthetics and chemicals and water is contaminated. These practices have resulted in a glut of poor quality food invading our supermarkets. The consequences to the loss of small family farming are highly alarming.

Chemical Pollution to Our Environment

These chemicals were initially produced for warfare, and not meant to be slightly changed and used on our food. Even if you believe there is no trace of these chemicals in your food because some higher authority has given the seal of approval, it’s time to take the blinders off and accept the truth. Contamination exists, and it goes into our bodies, our unborn babies and our breast milk.

Very little, if any, importance is given to the land as a live organism that needs preservation, restoration and nurturing. The land is exploited to the maximum and given no value. It’s the ultimate abuse of something that just gives and can’t defend itself. This, along with the fact that more land and water resources are being bought and controlled by a few corporate giants, is alarming. To continue reading part 3: https://gardeningtheorganicway.com/misc/loss-farmland-diminishing-food-part-3/

To purchase ‘Garden the Organic Way’ as an ebook http://Amazon- Garden the Organic Way