State's Water Issues Get National Exposure

"A half-million acres in the country's agricultural breadbasket are lying fallow as a result of a three-year drought," said Lesley Stahl of the CBS News program, "60 Minutes," at the beginning of a late-December nationwide broadcast segment titled "California: Running Dry." With much of the script and interviews with Gov. Schwarzenegger emphasizing population growth, the effect of the Endangered Species Act on Delta pumping and the decline in Delta infrastructure, the program may prove to be a force for support by the general public of the water bond issue on November's ballot.

A particularly effective interview was with West Side almond grower Stuart Woolf, who was shown pulling and shredding almond trees because he didn't have enough water. He has destroyed 130,000 trees so far. He predicted higher food prices, and fewer food products from California. "These crops may very well come from other regions of the world," he said. "I don't think the average consumer has felt this impact yet, but it will come."

While discussing the high unemployment rate in farm communities, the camera focused on farm workers standing in a bread line next to cartons of carrots from China.

For more information on water issues, visit almondboard.com/waterways.