Five year predictions are ugly…

[SeaLegs]

It was legal immigrants with proper documents (work visas) until the late 80s. I watched it happen with my own eyes.

 

[CATD8RII]

Most field workers and farm hands are yes....wait for it... Illegal Aliens aka migrant workers and have been for 60 years or more. Those are the jobs talking heads get on TV and scream about when ice deports people "Who is going to pick our vegetables and those are jobs Americans aren't willing to do." I'm asking questions and musing with a broad brush yes but I think if we look into it that it will most often be the case. My comments were meant to be introspective observations and questions about why we are doing what we are doing. Maybe it's time for a change

Yes you are generalizing and painting with a broad brush for sure. Small percentage slip through as totally illegal. Green cards and work visas are the norm. A great majority are legal citizens. There is too much scrutiny for The Wealthiest Farmer to try to get away with it. But what do I know. I just live down here in the Imperial Valley and grew up working down here farming. I find it amusing/irritating that I've read here on this site about the Imperial Valley/IID posters that say they drove through here once and this isn't even good ground to be growing on, there are haystacks on the side of the fields yellow and going to waste, when in reality, its wheat straw or bermuda grass straw that is the byproduct of combing for seed, and that the Imperial Valley is just a waste land and should just be a huge landfill. Im wondering where you aquire your introspective observations? Why are farmers in the Imperial Valley doing what they are doing?? I believe the same as farmers all around the world are doing, providing food for the population, let's face it, that are too lazy to do it themselves. We just want to go to the store and buy it!! The Imperial Valley farmers are already cutting back, starting last season. A vast majority of Alfalfa, Bermuda Grass, Klein Grass and Sudan Grass acreage went dry for the 3 hottest months in the summer to conserve water. Same with this summer. We sit here and assume that nothing is being done and listen to media so we all can come up pointing a finger at the Valley Farmers. Is Las Vegas using less electricity, LA, Phoenix, Tuscon,San Diego? Are all these cities backing off of growth?
Ill say it again, shut off all the water you want to IID/Imperial Valley. It will not make a bit of difference, all that water will be reappropriated. That's why there is the big finger point at IID. I won't make a bit of difference.

 

[Marina Bum]

Yes you are generalizing and painting with a broad brush for sure. Small percentage slip through as totally illegal. Green cards and work visas are the norm. A great majority are legal citizens. There is too much scrutiny for The Wealthiest Farmer to try to get away with it. But what do I know. I just live down here in the Imperial Valley and grew up working down here farming. I find it amusing/irritating that I've read here on this site about the Imperial Valley/IID posters that say they drove through here once and this isn't even good ground to be growing on, there are haystacks on the side of the fields yellow and going to waste, when in reality, its wheat straw or bermuda grass straw that is the byproduct of combing for seed, and that the Imperial Valley is just a waste land and should just be a huge landfill. Im wondering where you aquire your introspective observations? Why are farmers in the Imperial Valley doing what they are doing?? I believe the same as farmers all around the world are doing, providing food for the population, let's face it, that are too lazy to do it themselves. We just want to go to the store and buy it!! The Imperial Valley farmers are already cutting back, starting last season. A vast majority of Alfalfa, Bermuda Grass, Klein Grass and Sudan Grass acreage went dry for the 3 hottest months in the summer to conserve water. Same with this summer. We sit here and assume that nothing is being done and listen to media so we all can come up pointing a finger at the Valley Farmers. Is Las Vegas using less electricity, LA, Phoenix, Tuscon,San Diego? Are all these cities backing off of growth?
Ill say it again, shut off all the water you want to IID/Imperial Valley. It will not make a bit of difference, all that water will be reappropriated. That's why there is the big finger point at IID. I won't make a bit of difference.

CatD8r11 you have been a nice guy to deal with on WW and I didn't mean to get your Ire up. All I can say is that cities consume only about 10 percent of the water. The VAST majority goes to agriculture and I like to eat, God Bless the Farmers.

It's my understanding that 70% plus of the water that passes beyond Glen Canyon Dam goes to agriculture and that there is almost zero real scrutiny as far as hiring illegals goes in farming even if the employer gets "some papers." Even President Trump said two weeks ago that he won't deport illegal farm workers. Why? I suspect it's because he was told how many there are working in agriculture and how rough it would be on US markets and farmers if they disappeared.

I too grew up in farm and ranch country here in Arizona and have irrigated and hoed rows of beans, watermelon, alfalfa and cotton as a kid. Even back then in the 1970's there were lots of Illegal Aliens working the fields. It's a fact of life in Arizona right here next to Mexico and I'm certain California is the same.

I was questioning broader policies and IF we should be growing alfalfa with our precious subsidized farm water to sell to China and Saudi Arabia (as an example) and asking how that makes sense for us. Of course alfalfa is just one of the high water use crops grown and exported from California and Arizona. It's a question but I wasn't blaming farmers or disparaging the people who grow our food. There are broader policy questions. All of those water rights are the crux of the matter, the farmers own them and the Water Compact guarantees the delivery from the system. Having less guaranteed water and using less could allow us to keep some in reserve for true emergencies.

The states are already using less under emergency management plans but the system can't deliver more than there is, more than they get. That's why the reservoirs are dropping, we are using the reserves to deliver the numbers and it can't go on forever. The initial water compact was flawed in my view. Guaranteeing set acre feet of water every year instead of a fixed percentage of what came into the system has proven to be a bad idea. We might need to make some hard changes. Only the strong hand of the Federal Government has the gravitas to make it happen; the water compact is Federal Law.

The topic is bad forecasts for the next five years and those forecasts are based on just what we are taking about, more consumption than inflow.