by Amanda Smith, Associate Editor Water. To thrive, agriculture needs water. And it's the ingredient that California, one of our nation's most agriculturally productive states, is most severely lacking....
In New Zealand, nobody owns water. You do not have rights over any water; all waterways that are of any significance are public property except that owned by the Maori (natives). All waterways in New Zealand...
California irrigation districts sue the state water board after it demanded they stop using pre-1914 water rights. As California's drought woes worsen and tempers keep climbing, you just knew it would...
Leave it to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to start a firestorm with water - one that is being fanned by nationwide anger, distrust and bitterness. The new "Clean Water Rule" issued May...
Maybe it is just a coincidence. Or maybe it's not. Years one, two and three of California's continuing historic drought saw new records for low precipitation and high farmer frustration
Water is the gorilla topic of discussion in California these days, and as supplies keep drying up, just about everyone has an opinion about water use, waste, conservation and government policies. Guess...
With snowpack levels at just 5 percent of the historical average for April 1 - the lowest amount for that date since record keeping began in 1950 - the severity of drought has reached a new high
Spring has barely begun, yet things already look grim. Bad turned to worse for California's drought situation in 2014, which is why, on the first day of spring this year, California's 2015 water situation...
Record-dry January kicked off what looks to be a fourth straight year. It's raining today in big parts of California. A series of storms began pounding the northern half of the state earlier this week...
As a parched postscript to a third straight year of drought, farmers in California's San Joaquin Valley who hold senior water rights are suing the state for deliveries they didn't receive in 2014, in hopes...
The days of "survival of the deepest" farm wells are heading for extinction in California. Earlier this month, Governor Jerry Brown signed historic legislation requiring local water agencies to set up...
In California's third year of historic drought, the price of water on the open market is being pushed to staggering levels that scream what a bargain farmers have enjoyed forever. It also raises the question...
It's unfortunate that the picture of an irrigation system shown with the August 4 article "Could city voters dictate farm water use?" illustrates one of the most wasteful ways of irrigating that exists....
It's sadly ironic to say that public frustration with California's epic drought is a fluid situation. Mandatory water use cutbacks, brown lawns, "water cops" who fine violators, rapidly drying reservoirs...
A third year of drought with no end in sight, household wells going dry, and suburban water shortages are turning public sentiment against farmers in the country's biggest agricultural state. Hot and dry...
"There is no doubt the California drought is adding cost to buying feed," Robert Chesler told those attending the 11th annual INTL FCStone Dairy Outlook Conference. "However, first-cutting alfalfa had...
When water stops flowing, disaster ensues. Seven states, all with major agricultural sectors, are running out of water. Three of these, California, Texas and New Mexico, are top 10 milk production states....
Less food, less jobs and $1.7 billion in agricultural losses are preliminary projections of the damage that will be done by the epic ongoing drought in the nation's largest agricultural state, according...