How the next generation of farmers has to think about the drought

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Podcasts Take Two

Mar 20, 2015

How the next generation of farmers has to think about the drought

They can't grow the same kinds of crops that once thrived in California. What can they rely on, and what happens if their crops fail?

Dried and cracked earth is visible on an unplanted field at a farm on April 29, 2014 near Mendota, California. As the California drought continues, Central California farmers are hiring well drillers to seek water underground for their crops after the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation stopped providing Central Valley farmers with any water from the federally run system of reservoirs and canals fed by mountain runoff.

They can't grow the same kinds of crops that once thrived in California. What can they rely on, and what happens if their crops fail?

The lion's share of water used in California – as much as 80 percent – goes towards growing food that feeds the whole country.

But in the midst of an ongoing drought, what's a farmer to do? Especially the next generation of farmers who are trying to establish themselves?

They may have to move away from many of the traditional crops grown here in the past.

Kate Greenberg with the National Young Farmers Coalition explains what new farmers will have to think about, and how what they grow will change how we all eat.