Saturday, March 28, 2015

How Much Water Do We Each Consume in Our Food?


If you look carefully at the hills in the background you can see some patches are green and others are brown. Old habits die hard. We haven't run cattle in over twenty years, but I still keep track of condition of the grass in the hills. The northern and eastern slopes are green. The southern and western slopes are starting to turn brown. We got off to a good start with the heavy rains in December, but things are drying up now. Just a glimpse of things to come.


How Much Water Do We Each Consume in Our Food?
By Paul H. Betancourt
Copyright March 2015


The Cold Hard Numbers

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reports that it takes nearly 800 gallons to produce food for one person. This is a global number. This applies to the developing world as well as the developed world. It does not matter if your food is produced through irrigation or dry land farming. 800 gallons per day, per person. Let’s run that number out-

800 gallons per person per day x 365 days=  292,000 gallons per person per year.

It takes almost 9/10ths of an acre foot of water per year to produce your food.

Let’s apply that number to California since that is our immediate concern-

292,000 gallons per person per year x 38 million Californians= 11,096,0000,000,000  You are reading that right, over 11 Trillion gallons of water to just produce the food to feed California. [I always encourage people to check my math. The link for the FAO report is below.]That turns out to be just over 34 Million acre feet.

34 million acre feet turns out to be about to be the amount of water California’s farmers use to produce our food. Interesting.

            There are some people throwing a fit about how much water it takes to grow an almond because we export almonds. Their accusation is we are exporting natural resources to make some people rich. Actually, exporting almonds increases prosperity for all Californians. That is how trade works. [In the interest of full disclosure I have proudly grown almonds for years.]
            But, for a moment let’s just take a look at the concern about farm water use. No matter how you slice it takes over 34 million acre feet of water to grow food to feed California. This number does not include the cotton and wool we wear in our clothes. Even if we imported all of our food it would still take 34 million acre feet of water to grow our food. And, what would that do to our carbon foot print?

            Speaking of carbon foot print- what is the big concern in environmental circles these days? Climate change. What is the one thing they want us to do to lower our carbon footprint with regards to our food? Buy food grown closer to home. California’s farmers can grow food for 38 million Californians, but we need a stable water supply to do it.


            Whether Vegan or Junk food junkie each of us averages 800 gallons of water a day to produce our food. 292,000 gallons of water per person per year.

So what do we do?

            We need to be increasing our water supply. We are not going to conserve our way out of this. There are just not enough low flow toilets.

            We need more water storage, especially if you are concerned about climate change. One of the problems with the water bond we passed last year is only 30% of the funds go to increase our water supply-if that ever gets built.


The cold, hard number is it takes 34 million acre feet just to produce the food we eat in California and we need to add 292,000 gallons of supply for each new person that comes to California, just to feed them.


note- it is dot.org. Dot.com will get you the toy company

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Consider the Lowly Mango

Consider the Lowly Mango
By Paul H. Betancourt
Copyright June 2012

            There are food activists who want to mandate changes in our food supply. They are concerned about America’s diet, climate change and other things. I understand their concerns. My point is that markets change things with demand from below, not commands from above.
            Consider the lowly mango. Thirty years ago you had to hunt all day to find a mango around here. Now they are two for a dollar at the local grocery store. What changed? Demand changed! There is new demand for mangoes and the system responded. How about ginger? Have you noticed the mounds of ginger in the stores in recent years? Where did that come from? Changing tastes now that we have more new neighbors from India.
            Growers, shippers and marketers make their living selling stuff. They wouldn’t do very well if they tried to produce and sell things people don’t want would they?
            The lesson to be learned is-
            We don’t have to mandate changes to our food supply

            When consumers change what they buy markets will respond.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Taking the Dogs for a Walk

Indy and Toby rather insist we take our morning walks. When I used to run or ride my bike, if I felt sick or it was raining I would skip. Indy and Toby are ready for their morning walk every day, like the old saying goes, "Rain or shine." The upside is I get to see some really nice sunrises. The neighbor's cherries are blossoming this week and this was dawn a few days ago.

When I turned around, this is what I saw in the other direction. 
[My Facebook friends have all seen the second photo, but not the first.]

Meanwhile on the farm we did get the onions watered, so they should start sprouting fast in this weather. The almonds are growing fast. I can see the growth difference compared with the photo I posted last week. And, we got the first pass done working the cotton beds.

 In other news- my book, "This Week on the Farm" will be at All Things Fresno downtown starting Monday. Tell a friend.

I hope you all have a great week.

P

Saturday, March 7, 2015

A Beautiful Sight on the Farm

It is hard for me to tell you how good that looks to me. These are the almonds we planted behind our house last month. They are sprouting and they are gorgeous. These trees will be here for the next twenty years and they are off to a good start.


Spring is in the air. I noticed while walking with the dogs this morning that Herr Mocking Bird has settled into the back yard. I don't mind his endless chatter, except in the early morning. I also saw the first Tri-Colored Blackbirds in the wheat fields. I look forward to their visit more than the visit of Herr Mocking Bird. Unfortunately the Blackbirds will only be here until early summer. Herr Mocking Bird will be singing to us until nearly winter.

Elsewhere on the farm we have started working cotton beds. We could be planting in a month. The onions are in and we started the water. We are trying something new. Instead of using sprinklers we are trying to germinate the onions with the drip system. It could save even more water.

The wheat is about three weeks ahead of normal. That is good news, I guess. I pulled leaf samples to adjust fertilizer. The problem is how to decide what the results mean. If I read the results by the calendar date then we are high. If I read the results by the plant condition then we are about right on the nose.

I hope you all have a great week!