California’s water problems have farmers weighing future options.
Stuart Woolf is the President and CEO of Woolf Farming & Processing. He says that they are considering a number of ideas to help their business and the environment.
“We’ve taken a part of our ranch, and working with other growers, are making it into a water bank so when it does rain we can generate credit and get pumping credit, that’s one of our goals. Another thing we’re doing is we’re looking at all of the stuff surrounding like regenerative ag and if you’re going to be pulling out almond trees we’re looking at maybe investing in grinders where we can grind up those trees and put that biomass back into the land and hopefully generate maybe some carbon credit. And you know, the Biden administration is very interested in ag and its impact on the climate; they’re setting aside dollars for that. We think that will likely be something in our future,” Woolf explains.
Currently, the California farm raises a variety of crops including almonds, grapes, and wheat. Given the state’s multi-year struggle with water availability, Woolf says that they are also considering crops that are drought-tolerant.
Related:
West Coast Drought Diaries: Drought raising water concerns and impacting CA’s rice
Where Water Flows, Food Grows: Rep. Jim Costa provides an update on California’s drought
How are Arizona producers going to cope with water cuts?
Make It Even: Arizona lawmakers call for more state to share in water cuts
