Public Comment Delivered to MID and Modesto City Council
By Joan Rutschow
The need to produce and deliver safe and nutritious food is a fundamental human concern. We will have to produce
English: A volume of one acre foot. It is a one acre area with a depth of one foot. This is equivalent to a 66 x 660 x 1 foot volume since an acre is defined as 66 x 660 feet. NOTE: the drawing is not to scale! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
more food in the next 40 years than we have in the last 10,000.
California farm revenue was $43.5 billion in 2011, making it the nations’ top ag state. California produces more than 400 commodities, employing 800,000 workers on 81,500 farms. U.S. farmers are among the most efficient in the world. Over the past 30 years, California has increased production of milk by 44%, processing tomatoes by 69% and almonds by 122%. At the same time, new production methods have helped growers save 100,000 acre feet of water a year. Our farmers are excellent stewards of our land and our water!
Letter to Editor, 5/31/13
It is very encouraging to see Adam Gray and Anthony Canella supporting farmers in Stanislaus County and Merced County, location of the most prime agricultural land in the world. We do have a water storage problem. We need more facilities to capture and store our water. Currently, because of 2 year drought conditions, and low water levels in our reservoirs, I feel San Francisco needs to seriously consider desalinization plants if they want more water and not take our water here in the valley (whole Pacific Ocean; technology for 50 years in the Mideast and Japan).
Bee Article, 6-23-13
The Water Advisory Committee stated that farmers get credit for replenishing our underground aquifers which have a value of $600,000/year. However, our resident farmer and hydrologist, Vance Kennedy, has stated that the value of aquifer recharge by our farmers is $2 million + per year. Concerning garden head accounts, which is property of less than 5 acres, homeowners are permitted to flood their property. The great majority of these small user accounts are urban homeowners and are maintained by families and elderly people who grow their own food in their back yard. Human survival by growing your own food, personal responsibility and self-sufficiency should not be penalized financially by raising the rates of the garden head accounts to sky high levels.
Remember – water + food = life itself!
By Joan Rutschow
Eye On Modesto 