Because California is the most populated state, coincidentally the largest agricultural vegetable producer in the nation, it naturally generates a lot of headlines when it comes to climate change. Wildfires have raged in the Golden State over the last few years, taking millions of acres of prime forest and more than a few homes along the way. Even the December rains barely put a dent in the decade plus California drought (desertification?) that has farmers pitted against cities for water access. But despite floods, from coastal storm surges, glacial melts and heavy rainfall in other parts of the United States, drought and searing heat are hardly relegated to California.
“‘The US government projects that 40 of our 50 states will be facing water problems within the next 10 years,’ says Jeff Levine, a New York City property developer…. ‘Although California gets nearly all of the news coverage, many other states are already feeling water supply problems. California has entered into an arrangement with Israel to accelerate Israeli engagement in California’s water sector. I’m sure that other states will follow. Israel has so much to teach the world about how to prepare for a drier, more water-limited future.” Entity.com (11/14/16).
With a huge influx of post WW-II jews, the immigrants to that nascent nation were faced with generating enough agricultural production to feed their population. In what was mostly desert. Not only did they do it, but they have become the planet’s leading experts on water usage, extraction and conservation. California needs their technology… but so does a large section of the United States. First, let’s look at California. Lakes, streams and aquifers are drying up. On average, snowpack is dwindling as glacial ice is melting, not so glacially, in the mountains that feed water to California and nearby states.
Stephanie Pincelt, professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, writing for the January 9th Los Angeles Times, puts the issue succinctly: “It’s this fear of water shortages that is dominating conversations and creating antagonisms: farmers versus city dwellers, farmers versus farmers, water officials versus everybody.
“So much of agriculture today is intertwined with dependence on hydrocarbons — from fertilizers, fumigants and pesticides to diesel and plastics. Continuing to grow crops and rear livestock using highly consumptive 20th century methods will compound ecological crises and implode the agricultural sector. Climate change is already here, and water is not something that can be manufactured. With more dry years, and more groundwater extraction, the path toward groundwater depletion is clear.
“That’s why for California agriculture to survive with less water and fewer hydrocarbons, we need nothing short of a revolutionary re-envisioning of the future — one that can still provide livelihoods and sustenance… The politics of this change will be enormously contentious, difficult and protracted. But consider the alternative: The path of agriculture today is toward extinction.
“A new agriculture for the post-hydrocarbon era will have to rely on local and regional resources. People will have to eat more seasonally and eat fewer high-energy dense foods, such as meat. Different regions across the U.S. and the world will have to return to growing what can be grown in those places, supplemented by hothouses heated with compost in cold regions. This means California will no longer be a large exporter of food, domestically or internationally. California agriculture will be primarily destined for Californians.
“One of the most challenging issues in this transition will be the question of corporate large-scale land holdings. With less water available and the shift away from hydrocarbon agriculture, big farms may break up as they will no longer be viable. If the return on investment for corporate growers declines, they will exit. And lands that were brought into production by the broad application of fossil energy will go out of production, while the footprint of agriculture in the state will shrink.
“But a new ecological agriculture will create jobs, with the potential to allow us to adopt more sustainable farming practices, as modeled by the Eastern Mediterranean region, where water experts worked with farmers who had deep local knowledge about seeds, soil and farming practices that had been developed over many centuries. By practicing small-scale intensive agriculture, growing a diversity of crops, and applying organic inputs to increase or maintain soil fertility, these land artisans can sustain their communities.”
So, Israel can teach us a great deal, ranging from highly targeted watering of food crops, recycling and run-off recapture and desalinization (which has nasty and toxic salt as a byproduct). My Olive Tree is a non-profit/Israeli governmental cooperative that has become the cutting edge of continued Israeli efforts to research, promote and design water conservation technologies, particularly for regional farming. Their Website tells us what Israel is doing that the rest of the world should apply: “Water primarily covers the world, but it is salt water, unusable until it runs through a desalination process, which is an expensive and timely process. During droughts, water conservation technology is even more crucial.
“During the drought of 2015, farmers in the United States, and especially California, were looking for innovative ways to conserve water; through the help of Israeli drip irrigation technology, many farmers now use 35% less water compared to those with surface or sprinkler irrigation.
“Israel is widely considered the world leader in water recycling. In fact, thanks to strategic advancements in technology and diplomacy, Israel has more water than it uses, even in the midst of the arid climate… They set limits as to how much water both they and their Jordan neighbors use seasonally from the Jordan and Yarmouk rivers.
“As Israel continues to improve upon their desalination process, their ingenuity and conservation efforts have now put them in a place of water abundance due to the technology… The IDE Technology Sorek facility in Sorek, Israel, is the largest and most advanced desalination facility in the world. It alone can provide water for 1.5 million people by processing seawater straight from the Mediterranean Sea… The desalination process allows Israel to supply water to their crops as well as their neighbors’ crops.
“The most efficient water conservation Israel has done is recycling 90% of its wastewater—the highest percentage in the world—for its crops. The United States recovers roughly 1%... Similar to desalination, the wastewater recovery technology is costly. However, as Israel continues to use resources in conservative and revolutionary ways, efficiency and technology will improve, decreasing the cost… Currently, Israel has available water during droughts and dry seasons, which is critical to their own agricultural and food production, as well as its economy.” If we can simply stop fighting about infrastructure upgrades and embellishments, we just might get a handle on unavailable and increasingly pricey foodstuffs, assuming water policy is prioritized.
If you live in Los Angeles and have seen what we euphemistically call the “Los Angeles River” (pictured above), which is little more than a concrete runoff channel built in the 1930 to stop street flooding after a heavy rain, you may have even seen the raging torrents as precious water is rushed to the sea. The old slick concrete was designed to accelerate water flow. Engineers are slowly fixing that… and building large recapture basin to retain more water. Still, after the big December rain, that concrete channel was taking water out to sea so fast, even the most experienced kayaker wouldn’t risk the journey.
I’m Peter Dekom, and if eating, drinking water, bathing and growing crops matter to you, time’s up!
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