California Cattle Ranchers and the Drought: There is so much misinformation out there
Author’s note: This is the first in a series about the challenges facing 21st century California ranchers.
Mike Smith has about had it. So have a lot of other California ranchers.
“We’ve been dealing with this historic drought for the past few years…since before California homeowners started letting their lawns die,” Smith, chair of the California Beef Council, said. “Suddenly people are waking up to the severity of the drought and their first reaction is to point fingers. California agriculture seems to be a favorite target.”
Smith, who is also the special projects manager for Harris Ranch in Coalinga, shakes his head. “There is so much misinformation out there. It’s tough enough to deal with a large-scale problem like this when you have to keep busting myths right and left.”
The “myths” Smith refers to are numbers tossed around about the percentage of water consumed by farms and the percentage agriculture contributes to California’s economy. In a recent Op-Ed column in the Los Angeles Times, California’s Secretary of Agriculture, Karen Ross, made her own attempt to address the misperceptions that surround the numbers being cited. Blanket statements such as “farms consume 80% of the state’s water,” and agriculture generates “only about 2% of (California’s) gross domestic product” are deceptive, notes Ross and University of California-Davis professor of agricultural and resource economics, Daniel Sumner. That 80% figure includes water dedicated to environmental uses, such as water in rivers that flows into the ocean. And in terms of the economy, Ross writes, separating agriculture from the way it links to so many other sectors such as utilities, real estate, the food and beverage processing that is part of non-durable goods manufacturing, and the wholesale and retail trade categories—not to mention transportation, finance, insurance and other categories—gives an incomplete picture of just how central food is to a variety of economic sectors in California.
While, as Mike Smith notes, many Californians have begun to look closely at their own water conservation—taking shorter showers, replacing lawns with drought-tolerant plants and skipping the weekly car washing—ranchers have been focused on this for years. Speaking more than a year ago, Monterey County rancher Kevin Kester addressed drought issues before they were on much of the public’s radar.
“We’ve had to reduce our herd size significantly just to sustain in this drought,” Kester stated in early 2014, “and we’ll have to take more drastic measures if the drought continues.” The impact, he said, goes beyond just a smaller herd: it also means a loss of years of building up the genetics of his cattle. “Recovery from that—even with rainfall—will take years.”
Kester is a fifth-generation rancher, and so he takes the long view when times are tough. Continuing to ranch is a “combination of pride, family legacy and a real love of this life and what we do. I want to continue that legacy my ancestors built, and afford my children the same opportunity to be a part of this industry. There’s nothing else I’d rather do than ranch and know that I’m providing food that others will be able to enjoy and benefit from.”
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