After a federal water commission published Water in
the West: The Challenge for the Next Century (HCN, 6/22/98), a
250-member industry group known as the Family Farm Alliance went to
work on a report of its own. Irrigated agriculture has gotten the
blame for the West’s water woes, members say, and they want to
clear their name. The result is Western Irrigation Economic
Benefits Review: Irrigated Agriculture’s Role for the 21st Century,
written by planner Darryll Olsen and economist Houshmand Ziari, and
promoted by a Beverly Hills public relations firm. The report
fiercely defends farming that depends on dams and diverting water
from the region’s rivers. Without cheap water, the writers say,
American agriculture would founder, along with a significant
portion of the U.S. economy. In technical prose, the
half-inch-thick report calls for a compromise that won’t
significantly impact their “quiet industry.”
For
a copy, send $10 to the Family Farm Alliance, 9217 Laguana Lake
Way, Elk Grove, CA 95758, (916/683-7196).
*Dustin
Solberg
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Irrigators speak a volume.
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