Drought continues over much of western North America, affecting regions from the High Plains to California, and south to Texas. California-style wildfires have raged in Texas and Kansas. Eighteen western states are reporting areas of extreme drought, as of April 12, the latest NOAA Drought Monitor. And of those, there is exceptional drought in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas; and also in Nevada, Oregon and Montana.
This is an automatic hit on U.S. food production, including potential exports. Make no mistake: The crisis comes from the lack of water provision infrastructure–conveyance and desalination–not from so-called climate change, which is a cover story for depopulation.
The Plains wheat belt is affected, as are other highly productive regions. California is the leading U.S. agriculture state in diversity of commodities, and volume of many of them. Its main river basins are all dry: the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and the extension of the Colorado. Heavy pumping has overdrawn underground water tables. Land has been fallowed, nut groves and orchards destroyed. Some farmers have survived with “deficit irrigation,” meaning underwatering their crops, which results in lower yields, but keeps the situation alive.
