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Tackling misinformation head on

California’s farmers and ranchers have been receiving some negative attention after Governor Jerry Brown announced mandatory water cuts for urban users.  That bad publicity has California’s agricultural industry tackling misinformation surrounding water use head on.

California Farm Bureau president Paul Wenger says farmers have done their job so well that consumers have taken it for granted.  “I’ve talked to some disgruntled homeowners who have been told they have to cut back watering their lawn,” he says.  “I asked them if they could tell me one person who had to refinance their home because they had to cut back on their watering or take quicker showers.  And nobody, of course, is in that situation.”

If next year is a wet year farmers have told Wenger they will survive.

However, he says, if the drought persists, many will not.  “We had ample water over the last four years, even with the drought,” he says.  “We had a 6-year drought between 1988 and 1993 and we never had these types of impacts – even though we had less water.  Most of it revolves around the inflexible endangered species act.”

He says it is important for agriculture to work together and tackle the misinformation and advocate for America’s farmers and ranchers.