Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink - Part 1 of 5

Originally published in the Porterville Recorder's 5/10/2023 issue. Part 1 of 5.

Kern County had 140,000 acres farmland in production in 1920 to lay the foundation for the argument about socioeconomic drought VS meteorological drought.  Fast forward to 2020 and there are 900,000 acres in production in Kern County.  The crops in 1920 were 10% permanent (think Tree’s) and in 2020 are 60% permanent.  That’s a six hundred percent increase in farmland in production and a six times increase in permanent crops.  We are definitely in a drought when you can increase the permanence of the crop by 6 times requiring year round water and now farming nearly a million acres of farm land today which is 6 times more than in 1920. 

The only thing more profitable than watering tree’s is sending water through a water meter.  Water through a water meter sells at more than 20 times that of wholesale water for trees.  The climate has changed alright, but not the climate they are telling you is changing.  This is an ever expanding abundance through innovation that has reached past sustainability. And it has destroyed the natural flows throughout the state and turned former wetlands and Tulare Lake into farmland and towns. 

The progressive advertising we see on billboards “water conservation is a growing concern” meaning that the growers cannot grow unless we people conserve more.  This is very misleading when you consider that people consume less than 10% of the water available and the 10% are being told they have to conserve more to make sure the 90% have more. This is not progress and we are long past equilibrium when we have already over pumped an estimated 80 million acre feet from the aquifer to support the growing of crops today. 

We are over drafting the aquifer by more than a million acre feet per year and we call the aquifer a bank. We have been over drafting the aquifer for more than 50 years and that after importing 25% of our water from the north.  The growers have been looting the water bank for more than a half century with no consequences. The growers have been on water welfare for decades and now they are pleading for more from the very people they have kept poor. The water bank needs a bailout and that means the people will pay again to keep the Ponzi scheme going.

We all know what is coming and we need to be paying attention.  The false premise that we are in a drought has nothing to do with climate, carbon dioxide or actual water.  The false premise that we are in a drought is to get people to buy into a lie and accept higher prices for water and more control over our lives.  It matters not that the people paid for all of the flood control dams and conveyances that the farmers enjoy, they still want to the people to pay more.

It matters not that the billions we are now being asked to borrow to rebuild sinking canals will be borne by the taxpayers. Here we go again we are on track to bail out the folks that abused the system created to serve them. Corporate farmers have abused the aquifer resulting in the subsidence that undermines the very canals they need. Those that are abusing the system are figuratively biting the hands that feed them. Never ending bail outs will continue because the sinking will continue if we don’t change course. The people have been captured by Stockholm syndrome.

Cotton farmers began pumping in the 1920’s to serve the cheapest foulest land in the valley and the aquifer was tapped by hundreds of straws. It’s a wonder what you can do with chemicals and herbicides and cheap company store labor. These were the times before Cesar Chavez and farm labor was cheap and easily abused because the depression had wreaked havoc on the country and the dust bowl caused a huge westerly migration. Once the demand for water from farming outstripped the supply they were begging for water from the north. In the early days the government through subsidies and incentives delighted in the plantation style growing and cotton output that was better than south even on bad soil. 

This was the era of the progressives and the eugenics movements.  Where some were more equal than others.  Sound familiar? This lead straight into the WPA era and the Roosevelt communes were government was deemed the solution for all of our ills. Worker’s rights did not exist enabling abuse beyond our imagination today and breadlines were common. The aquifer began to fall and fall and fall as the cotton farmers acres in production grew exponentially. Output and profit was the motive and this was long before the ruse of environmentalism and the era of climate change was employed to sway public opinion. 

Today’s talking points cast a much wider net claiming carbon, petroleum, pesticides and whatever tickles your imagination is causing the earths problems came into the collective consciousness fueled by the guilt of past abuse of the land it has turned into a worldwide phenomenon.  It didn’t matter that the ocean level had not changed people began to believe that it had. The collective group think says the ocean is rising and so it must be accepted as a religious rite and part of the climate change dogma. 

The steady drum beat of moving the water from north to south began in earnest proclaiming the water was in the wrong place. Pay no attention to the pump behind the curtain simultaneously draining the aquifer to farm land that should not be farmed. The drum beat lead the state directly into the 1933 infrastructure plans. Voted in by the people and paid for by the federal government the dam building began in earnest. The gold rush for the south valley and cheap land gained momentum and the mining of water just increased even more. In the south they claimed it was a dust bowl drought and in the north they asked for help with flooding at the same time.  Interestingly enough we hear the same drought and flood rhetoric at the same time but framed as climate change. 

Whatever water you could get to farm was on the table and the building of flood control dams throughout the state gained momentum after 1933 and has never stopped. There are now 1300 named dams in California and the water projects over the 20^th century boggle the mind there are so many of them. We have made the valley the most productive in the world but it’s never enough so ever bigger demand became an ever bigger campaign to get more water to water a dessert and support the company store.

Claiming it’s a drought crisis blaming God is just the latest installment and cover for the folly of man. We also blame God for the flooding through the climate change dogma or eschatology (religion) that works in all seasons. The real victims of the drought crisis rhetoric are the people who paid for the dams, canals and are told to conserve at 3^rd world levels only to be taxed again to pay for what they already paid for. We just forgot to tell the whole truth that the crisis is man-made and driven by corporate greed. The noble farmer you think about in your mind is more like the myth of the Yeti or the Sasquatch. 

There is no way for the small farmer to compete with the corporate farms that control most of the water.  When more than 90% of the water is consumed by farms and more than 50% of the farms are now corporate farms backed by hedge funds they are now wielding water as a weapon leasing land and chasing profits on a scale we have never seen before. The noble family farmer has no chance and gets squeezed in the middle until it sells to the big guys who farm WATER or farm HOUSES. 

By the way your retirement fund is heavily invested in these companies now. A full half of the big farms are supported by hedge funds and retirement funds chasing a 20% profit to make good on promises they made, including the government retirement funds, and will never be able to keep those promises. The reality is the return won’t be 20% it will more likely be 5% or less as they choke off the little guy in the valley chasing profit over people.  In other words Big Finance is using our own money and resources to put more shackles on us and reduce more of our freedom’s and push us further in debt chasing the profits we demanded they chase.

The steady drum beat in the media clamoring “It’s all for the greater good and it’s all about sustainability!” In marketing they call this conditioning and it’s working because the propaganda media has convinced the masses to buy into this latest eschaton rebranded sustainability. They just left out a few facts and real history neglecting their own responsibility in their own corporate greed. Media is supposed to look out for the people as a check on government as codified in the 1^st amendment. My mind turns to Captain Bligh berating his men “The beatings will continue until morale improves”.  That’s how I interpret the definition of sustainability.  Men sailing the open ocean surrounded by water but not a drop to drink.  Sustainability is yet another floating signifier I have no doubt.

It’s a strange thing to say the people are using all the water when the people consume less than 10% of the water. It’s even stranger for the farmers who use all the water to perpetuate that myth while controlling 90% of the water and even selling it back to cities to consume at a much higher rate than they bought it for.   We have been farming water for years and then blaming drought for our abuse to cover our own greed. 

It’s an excellent bait and switch and our government not only enabled it but also profits from it as much or more than income taxes which are the highest in the union along with the highest debt in the union which is how the company store thrives.  Remember the company store issued paper instead of money for the privilege of buying just enough to get buy and stay on the plantation.  After all you need water to live so it’s a great place to add to more government control through rationing and debt.  The Climate Change hoax is being exploited to drive the big government green agenda that is bankrupting the middle class and destroying wealth and savings through inflationary spending. Political interests & corporate interests advance as more power is centralized. With God all things are possible, with government all things are taxable.

Remember totalitarians (progressives) require crises to implement their agenda.  There is a very strong correlation to crisis and loss of freedom and when see crisis after crisis it is more likely an agenda than a genuine reaction. Corporate media is fueling this totalitarian narrative and not doing its job as a check on power. Media has become the marketing arm of the government and promotes corporate power as a public good. Media is now controlled almost completely by advertising and political correctness. We are beginning to see quite clearly we no longer have a free press but a bought and paid for propaganda machine that loves endless crisis.  They give us dirty laundry.

A half-truth is a lie.  Not reporting the whole story is a lie by omission.  Spin is a carefully crafted lie meant to persuade and promote a particular agenda.  Remember this basic phrase as you work to sift through the propaganda.  ALL LIARS ARE THIEVES.  Concluding the opposite of what you are being told in this age of newspeak may be a good place to start your truth seeking.  Now with Covid dollars we even bolster the advertising with public service announcements like water is wet and socialism themes like stronger together.