The ripple effect
The state’s water crisis is taking a withering toll on life on the Valley’s west side.
07/05/08 21:50:38Life on the Valley’s west side may be withering along with crops that farmers have left to die.
Hundreds of farmworkers already have lost their jobs as growers idled or abandoned crops because of severe water shortages. Hundreds more will lose work because of crops that won’t be planted this autumn.
Signs of trouble are everywhere:
The Spreckels Sugar plant in Mendota, a fixture since 1963, will close in September unless a grower cooperative can salvage it. Closure would mean 200 jobs lost.
Fordel, a major grower-packer-shipper of melons and other produce, is selling its Mendota facility after more than two decades. It is not harvesting or packing a crop this year. City officials say the company accounted for as many as 500 growing and packing jobs.
St. Joseph’s School in Firebaugh is closing this month after more than 40 years, a casualty of declining enrollment and a shrinking pool of farmers able to give money.
Weather and pest challenges, along with abandoned acreage, are cutting processing-tomato production for Fresno County, the state’s top grower, by as much as 400,000 tons. In 2006, the last year for which figures are available, farmers in Fresno County produced 4.4 million tons of processing tomatoes valued at $248 million. This year’s cut will mean shorter hours of plant operation and less work for truckers.
