“The coequal goals,” the Council’s website states, “shall be achieved in a manner that protects and enhances the unique cultural, recreational, natural resource, and agricultural values of the Delta as an evolving place.” The Delta Stewardship Council is tasked with carrying out this objective, which mandates providing a reliable water supply for human users and protecting, restoring, and enhancing the state’s natural resources and wildlife. The deterioration of the Central Valley’s aquatic ecosystems as the agriculture sector thrives represents the failure of a particular tenet of state policy known as the coequal goals. Even in dry years, most of California’s farm acreage receives plenty of water, and total farm revenue does not substantially decline.

Today, California’s farms occupy millions of acres, use 80 percent of our stored water supply, and produce about $50 billion in products each year, the majority of which is consumed out of state. Whereas the state’s Chinook and coho salmon runs have withered to about a tenth of their historic magnitude, California’s agriculture industry has seen steady and soaring growth since its inception 150 years ago. However, this interpretation weaves a false equivalence through the narrative. Mainstream news outlets often portray the struggle as one between two groups ravaged by environmental whims and climate change. Farmers want more of it to irrigate their crops, while fishermen and environmentalists want more left in rivers to protect the state’s Chinook salmon. As drought parches California, obliterates its snowpack, and reduces rivers to trickles, a familiar feud over water has resurfaced.

Golden state holistic farms