Fish Versus People

[Ringel05]

California farmers are laying off in ever increasing numbers. Many will be bankrupt and out of business soon. In one of the most fertile areas in the nation farm acreage the size of Connecticut is laying fallow or the crops are already dead. This is not so much due to the drought but because of Federal protections on certain kinds of Smelt and Salmon the authorities refuse to release the water. The farmers are particularly blaming the current congress and president Obama for not taking action even though their congressional representatives have tried unsuccessfully to bring up the issue in session.

Calif. farmers say feds make drought worse - USATODAY.com

 

[garyd]

There is no situation however desperately bad that the government cannot make it worse.

 

[AllieBaba]

The government already made it worse.

 

[Luissa]

They knew about the problem two years ago. This is obviously a situation where they just kept passing the problem onto the next guy. I am sure Washington state and Oregon will have to bail them out and then are rates go up even though we can self maintain.

 

[Ringel05]

Screw the corn, save the smelt.

Corn is just a tad to small for me. Come (no pun intended) to think of it, smelt is too.

 

[Sidestreamer]

Farmers crying at the government because it's not going to go against nature and dump the reserves and threaten the fish stock in the process.

Until we reach a food crisis, I have little sympathy for them. Cantaloupe can be grown further up the river, and nobody's stopping them from moving. Otherwise they chose this line of work knowing full well droughts happen.

 

[Sidestreamer]

Screw the corn, save the smelt.

Corn is just a tad to small for me. Come (no pun intended) to think of it, smelt is too.

I don't think they actually grow corn in that region after I looked it up, hence the deletion.

 

[Ringel05]

Farmers crying at the government because it's not going to go against nature and dump the reserves and threaten the fish stock in the process.

Until we reach a food crisis, I have little sympathy for them. Cantaloupe can be grown further up the river, and nobody's stopping them from moving. Otherwise they chose this line of work knowing full well droughts happen.

Actually the primary crop is almonds, one of the largest areas that supplies almonds to the nation.
Hope you don't like almonds.

 

[nodoginnafight]

I don't know the particulars about this specific situation, but in general terms I do think the PETA-type radicals are just goofy.

Species come and species go - it's called natural selection. If you think sending a child to bed hungry just to prop up some failing species is acceptable, I could not disagree more.

 

[Xenophon]

California is a world model of how not to govern.

 

[editec]

Not allowing fertilzer laden runoff into the water supplies and naatural water systems sounds like a damn good policy to me.

 

[Ringel05]

Not allowing fertilzer laden runoff into the water supplies and naatural water systems sounds like a damn good policy to me.

Then I am to assume you derive your sustenance from thin air? Or is it you have "evolved" to the point where you no longer require sustenance? (Around here we call that: dead).

 

[AllieBaba]

Farmers crying at the government because it's not going to go against nature and dump the reserves and threaten the fish stock in the process.

Until we reach a food crisis, I have little sympathy for them. Cantaloupe can be grown further up the river, and nobody's stopping them from moving. Otherwise they chose this line of work knowing full well droughts happen.

What an amazingly ignorant post.

Really, it's so stupid you should get points for it.

 

[midcan5]

I love how those who cannot think through a paper bag blame the current administration for a long term drought? Somehow nature and blame changed these last six months, prior to that one wonders who they blamed?

 

[Sidestreamer]

Farmers crying at the government because it's not going to go against nature and dump the reserves and threaten the fish stock in the process.

Until we reach a food crisis, I have little sympathy for them. Cantaloupe can be grown further up the river, and nobody's stopping them from moving. Otherwise they chose this line of work knowing full well droughts happen.

What an amazingly ignorant post.

Really, it's so stupid you should get points for it.

I guess elaboration isn't something you care to do? Other than the crop (the article's lead brought up cantaloupes but I'm told it's almonds that grow there), how exactly am I wrong? You only stepped in here and said the government made it worse without any explanation put behind that post. I think you're just yessing anything talk radio gives you.

 

[Luissa]

I love how those who cannot think through a paper bag blame the current administration for a long term drought? Somehow nature and blame changed these last six months, prior to that one wonders who they blamed?

pretty much you can blame every admistration for the last twenty or more years. THey knew the reserves wouldn't provide them with enough water and that they needed to fix ithe Sacramenta Delta along with building another one. I found an article from two years ago projecting the problem they now face.

 

[Big Black Dog]

Until we reach a food crisis, I have little sympathy for them. Cantaloupe can be grown further up the river, and nobody's stopping them from moving. Otherwise they chose this line of work knowing full well droughts happen.

I do believe that this is the most ignorant statement I have ever seen typed out here on the board. What do you think the farmers can do, roll up their farms and move it at will? I am willing to bet you are stupid enough to be a tree hugger too. No doubt in my mind that you're a Democrat.

 

[Sidestreamer]

I don't know the particulars about this specific situation, but in general terms I do think the PETA-type radicals are just goofy.

Species come and species go - it's called natural selection. If you think sending a child to bed hungry just to prop up some failing species is acceptable, I could not disagree more.

I am not sure how much of an economy the smelt and salmon stock supports in that region but if it's a federal regulation I am pretty sure PETA-like rationale isn't driving it.

 

[Sidestreamer]

Until we reach a food crisis, I have little sympathy for them. Cantaloupe can be grown further up the river, and nobody's stopping them from moving. Otherwise they chose this line of work knowing full well droughts happen.

I do believe that this is the most ignorant statement I have ever seen typed out here on the board. What do you think the farmers can do, roll up their farms and move it at will? I am willing to bet you are stupid enough to be a tree hugger too. No doubt in my mind that you're a Democrat.

Tree hugger now? lol. Thinking it's a dumb idea to destroy a resource to respond to a temporary panic is tree hugging now?

I said they can find other jobs. They chose this line of work, many of them relied on government subsidies to run their farms and now times are rough. The USA Today article itself said it's 70 percent nature and 30 percent regulation causing the drought. You show me a farmer that does not save and prepare themselves financially for an occasional drought and I'll show you a bad businessman. Or are you one of those socialists who think we should subsidize bad businesses?

No doubt in my mind that you were all for subsidizing AIG and GM.

 

[garyd]

Then you haven't checked out the endangered species act lately. For instance there exist a peculiar little fish that once shut down several construction projects in and around San Fancisco Bay because the environmental crowd decided they were an endangered species. Turns out they were half right. The little fishies are endangered when they are in San Francisco Bay. You see that isn't there natural habitat. The only time they ever enter the Bay is when a powerful storm blows them in they are normally open ocean residents where they exist in the millions but they are still listed as an endangered species.