Monday, July 12, 2010

Harvest of Sorrows

Interstate Highway 5, near Firebaugh, California, October 2009



No crops were planted on this land last year.  None will be planted this year, and next year is probably a wash as well.

Under the Endangered Species Act, and in the name of "saving the planet," half of the farm land in California's San Joaquin Valley is going fallow, and what was once the nation's most fertile ground is falling victim to soil erosion.  Farmers are being denied the use of water on their own land, in order to "save" the Delta Smelt.  Yet, as this video argues, the danger to the species of fish comes not from California's farmers, but from cities and industries upstream, who are using the environmental movement as a cat's paw to cover their own pollution.