The idea that agriculture in arid areas is providing food for America’s tables comes up a lot. But how much of the food grown here is actually ending up on our tables, versus being exported? Let’s take a look for California…
More than nine million acres of farmland in California are irrigated, representing roughly 80% of all water used for businesses and homes. Higher-revenue perennial crops—nuts, grapes, and other fruit—have increased as a share of irrigated acreage (from 16% in 1980 to 33% in 2015 statewide, and from 21% to 45% in the southern Central Valley). This shift, plus rising crop yields, has increased the economic return on water used for agriculture. Farm production generated 38% more gross state product in 2015 than in 1980, even though farm water use was about 14% lower. But even as the agricultural economy is growing, the rest of the economy is growing faster. Today, farm production and food processing generate about 2% of California’s gross state product, down from about 5% in the early 1960s.
California’s top valued agricultural export commodity continues to be almonds, with a value of more than $4.9 billion in foreign sales in 2019. This figure represents a change of 8 percent from the previous year. Pistachios ranked number two in export value at just over $2 billion. California dairy and dairy products recorded an export value of $1.8 billion in 2019, representing 12 percent growth over the prior year.
IMHO publicly-subsidized water is providing extensive private benefits, and as the drought and climate change are not things we have much, if any, control over, we do have control over how the ever-shrinking supply of fresh water is utilized. I agree desal and moving water around vast distances is going to be very costly and not address the current problems until some far-off future time. But, reducing agriculture, specifically for those most thirsty and heavily exported crops (nuts, dairy products), is something we can do that can provide immediate relief for non-ag uses, should it come to that. And I do not think doing so will put much risk to our food supply.