With drought jeopardizing California agriculture, farmers
across the state urge Governor Brown to place a moratorium on
water-intensive fracking.
California farmers, grappling with a record drought that’s parching
their fields and livelihoods, call on Governor Jerry Brown to place a
moratorium on the water-intensive extreme oil and gas extraction process
known as hydraulic fracturing, or
fracking.
Yesterday afternoon, Shafter almond farmer Tom Frantz, California State
Grange President Bob McFarland and Monterey County vintner Paula
Getzelman of Tre Gatti Vineyards delivered a petition to Governor
Brown’s office signed by 145 California farmers calling for a moratorium
on fracking.
“Water is the lifeblood of a farm — without clean, affordable water
we cannot grow food,” said the Shafter almond farmer Tom Frantz, who
caught on video the illegal dumping of fracking wastewater in an unlined
pit next to an almond orchard. “This drought has already put many of
California’s small and midsized farms on the brink. To allow fracking on
some of California’s most fertile agricultural land will further
devastate California’s bucolic heritage. I don’t think this is the
legacy that Governor Brown wants to leave behind.”
The farmers were joined by Jerome Waag, head chef of the legendary
Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, to deliver a fracking moratorium
petition signed by 171 chefs, restaurateurs, brewers, purveyors,
retailers and winemakers from across California, including some of the
most celebrated chefs in the world such as Alice Waters, Stuart Brioza,
Chris Cosentino, Dominique Crenn, Suzanne Goin, Joyce Goldstein, Daniel
Patterson and Annie Somerville.
California’s drought is particularly devastating to the state’s
farmers who grow the bulk of America’s fruits, vegetables and nuts,
especially those in the primarily agricultural Central Valley. The State
Water Project recently announced that it would be cutting off water
deliveries for the first time in its 54-year history, and the federal
government announced last week that farmers should expect to receive no
water from the Central Valley Project. Additionally, the price for water
has increased tenfold, from $135 an acre-foot last year to $1,350 an
acre-foot in the second week of February.
“When farmers cannot irrigate their land, their workers lose their
jobs and local economies suffer. Some never recover,” said California
State Grange President Bob McFarland. “Much of the world relies on the
excellent produce and nuts grown in California, and our water should be
used to grow this food and feed people, not wasted in a toxic extraction
process to produce oil to be shipped overseas.”
Two weeks ago, President Obama, with Governor Brown by his side,
visited the Central Valley to pledge $183 million in existing federal
funds and to ask Congress for $1 billion in additional funds, linking
the drought to climate change. Meanwhile, Governor Brown continues to
stand behind SB 4, the legislation he signed into law last fall that
paves the way for expanded fracking and other forms of extreme oil
extraction from the Monterey Shale, which is believed to hold as much as
13 billion barrels of crude oil. The Monterey Shale sits beneath some
of California’s most prized farmland. Extracting the estimated 13
billion barrels of oil would release about 7.7 billion more metric tons
of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, further destabilizing our climate
and exacerbating droughts.
“In the short term, fracking makes competition for California’s water
even more fierce, which could have a significant negative effect on
farmers, ranchers and vintners,” said Paula Getzelman, owner of Tre
Gatti Vineyards in Monterey County. “But the long-term consequences of
fracking are even more devastating. California needs to be investing in
the people who cultivate the land and feed people, not the oil companies
that threaten to pollute our land, water and communities.”
In addition to making the threat of climate change worse, fracking,
along with related drilling, wastewater disposal and other extreme
extraction methods like acidizing, has raised serious environmental and
public health concerns across the country. Wastewater from fracking and
drilling operations is regularly dumped or leaked into waterways,
putting fisheries in danger. And a
recent study in
the United Kingdom found that pollution, such as diesel exhaust common
in fracking operations, can harm bees. Tom Frantz recently captured
video of bees pollinating almond trees adjacent to drilling operations.
With more than 80,000 farms producing about $45 billion in annual
profits, California is the nation’s largest farm state, and agriculture
is California’s leading industry. In states like Pennsylvania, Colorado
and Ohio, grazing animals have gotten sick and died after drinking
fracking runoff and water from farm wells near fracking operations. In
Kern County, one farmer lost millions of dollars worth of almond and
pistachio crops from groundwater contamination from a nearby oil and gas
operation.
“Farmers are vital to a healthy food system and a healthy economy and
they must be protected,” said Adam Scow, California campaigns director
for Food & Water Watch. “We call on Governor Brown to place a
moratorium on fracking to protect California farmers from the severe
threat of fracking.”
“California needs an immediate halt to fracking to protect our
state’s precious water from this toxic technique,” said Brian Nowicki of
the Center for Biological Diversity. “To safeguard our farmers and
others affected by our state’s crippling drought, Governor Brown should
halt fracking in our state to protect the air we breathe and the water
we so desperately need.”
The petition was organized in conjunction with Food & Water
Watch, the Center for Biological Diversity and other members of the
statewide coalition Californians Against Fracking. Californians Against
Fracking and other organizations will hold a massive rally in Sacramento
on March 15 to press for a halt to fracking in the state.
Polls show that the majority of Californians are opposed to fracking.
Since the launch of Californians Against Fracking in May 2013, more
than 200,000 petitions have been signed urging Governor Brown to ban
fracking in California. Farmers, environmental justice groups, public
health advocates, local elected officials, students, celebrities and
many others are calling on Governor Brown to halt fracking in
California. More information can be found at
californiansagainstfracking.org.
Californians Against Fracking is a coalition of environmental,
business, health, agriculture, labor, political and environmental
justice organizations working to win a statewide ban on fracking in
California.
More Info:
The farmer petition and list of farmers who have signed can be found at
http://fwwat.ch/CAfarmersagainstfrack.
The chef petition and list of chefs who have signed can be found at
http://fwwat.ch/CAChefsFightingFracking.
Photos from yesterday’s meeting and letter delivery to Governor Brown can be found at
http://fwwat.ch/1eqgOIO.
Contact:
Anna Ghosh, 510-922-0075,
aghosh@fwwatch.org
Patrick Sullivan, 415-517-9364,
psullivan@biologicaldiversity.org
