Guest Blog
By Jason Giannelli
It is a beautiful May morning on one of our farms. As we wrap up the wheat harvest, we are running tillage equipment behind it to prepare for planting corn silage. It’s remarkable how far we’ve come as farmers and as an industry, achieving more with less and increasing yields. The same applies to water conservation—everyone is committed to being more efficient with irrigation. We are often told that drip irrigation is the best method and that flood irrigation is inefficient. In fact, flood irrigation was instrumental in helping replenish overdrafted aquifers following construction of the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project.
But if flooding is so inefficient, then why, during flood years, do agencies beg us to flood our fields, claiming it’s beneficial for water recharge or building water banks? I believe that much of the problem lies in the fact that we are not adequately recharging the aquifer, largely because cropping patterns have changed over the last 30 years. When we grew more wheat, cotton, and alfalfa and received surface water deliveries, groundwater issues were less severe.
Blaming agriculture as the sole cause for over pumping is absurd. We are already losing more farms and farmers, and more land is going idle. While I strongly support private property rights and believe farmers should be free to grow what makes economic sense, the real issue is government overreach.
Water managers, lawyers, consultants, and anyone with an opinion are trying to dictate what agriculture should do. We can’t forget President Dwight Eisenhower’s quote, “Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the cornfield.”
Yet, in these water discussions, no one genuinely listens to farmers—they expect us to comply and keep writing the checks that fund their salaries.
We live in an age where those paying the bills are not the ones making key decisions. I don’t know when that dynamic shifted, but I am tired of hearing the same rhetoric from agricultural representatives that I’ve heard since I was 10 years old. The “good old boy” network and the “go along to get along” mindset need to end. Those footing the bills must speak up and engage with their water districts and agencies.
We’ve reached a point where people who contribute nothing to society but rhetoric and gaslighting feel entitled to their opinions. Facts don’t care about feelings, and the reality is that without large and small family farms, this state’s economy would collapse.
A strong agricultural and energy-rich economy is essential to maintaining societal stability. A safe and affordable food supply is the basis of the nation’s stability, as is access to affordable energy. Without them, there would be no strong military, no entertainment, no vacations, and none of the other joys our society is fortunate to enjoy.
So, the next time you visit the store, remember that 1% of the population is feeding the other 99%.
