Due to the projected financial strain the lack of rain will most likely bring to farmers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced 11 western and central states as primary natural disaster areas: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and Utah.
Extremely dry conditions are causing significant problems from increased fire risks, to dry farmlands and low reservoirs.
Meteorologists say this is the driest year on record for California. California is the biggest economy in the U.S. and the 8th largest economy in the world. They have an approximate $2 trillion a year economy.
Business weather expert Paul Walsh was recently quoted saying, “What happens in California has a ripple effect across both our economy in the US and potentially across the global economy. The biggest issue for CA is water. It’s really the lifeblood of that economy. When we’re looking at conditions like we’re seeing right now, it can become very significant in terms of agriculture, but also in terms of the overall economy of CA and of the U.S.”
Walsh goes on to say, “The effects and the impacts of the drought take a long period of time to sort of work themselves out. I don’t think we’re going to see an immediate impact but I do think we probably will see impact from a pricing perspective.”
Climate projections are made by probabilities and those probabilities are leading towards conditions in CA becoming increasingly warm and increasingly dry. This concerns Californians to the point where they’ve begun to take steps to become a more resilient state. These steps led the California Natural Resources Agency, the California EPA and the California Department of Food and Agriculture to draft a Water Action Plan. This plan focuses on the reliability of their water supply, the needed ecosystem restoration to bring their water back into balance, and the resilience of their infrastructure.
The numbers below will give you something to think about.
California produces on average:
99% of the artichokes in the U.S
44% of the asparagus
89% of the cauliflower
94% of the broccoli
95% of the celery
90% of the leaf lettuce
83% of the fresh spinach
84% of the peaches
97% of the plums
California is also a major grower of tomatoes, bell peppers, strawberries, carrots, oranges and many other fruits and vegetables. As a matter of fact, no other state comes close to matching California’s output. If the drought continues to impact California, what effect will it have on U.S. economy and the prices we’ll be paying in the grocery stores?
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