Some people believe farmers use too much water. However, the amount of water actually used to grow our food is far less than many people believe.

I am a second-generation family farmer. We produce rice and walnuts in the Sacramento Valley. Like most family farmers, we donÕt take water for granted. We often use the same water over and over again as it moves from farm to farm. We also pay for our water.

Farm families use the latest technology and best available science to grow high-quality and affordable food with the least amount of water. While there is always room for improvement, it must be viewed as incremental. As Charles Burt, chairman of the Irrigation Training and Research Center at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, said recently, ÒWe canÕt squeeze more water out of CaliforniaÕs already highly efficient agricultural areas.Ó

Whenever I hear the word ÒfarmerÓ and ÒwaterÓ mentioned together, it worries me because it is usually critical of farmers. People believe it when they are told repeatedly that farmers use too much water and are contributing to CaliforniaÕs water crisis. I feel a deep sense of disappointment because Californians donÕt understand the whole story, nor do they know all the facts.

It is especially troubling to know that one of the most talked-about ways to meet CaliforniaÕs water needs is to drain water from the Sacramento Valley to deal with shortages elsewhere in the state.

The Sacramento Valley is one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions. Farmers rely on irrigation to grow an abundance of grapes, tomatoes, peaches, pears, prunes, olives, almonds, walnuts, hay, nursery products and cattle, and to produce dairy products. The Sacramento Valley also produces 95 percent of CaliforniaÕs rice crop, and 20 percent of the nationÕs rice crop.

Farmers take pride in producing our food, but we canÕt do it without water. When driving my tractor or truck, I think about how many people we fed because of the 1.5 million 100-pound bags of rice my familyÕs small farm produced over the years. Many people take their food for granted while much of the world goes to bed hungry. Perhaps itÕs because so few people live close to the land like farmers.

A farm is just many individual plants growing, maturing and producing food that we all need. A plant is like a child. You canÕt deny an adequate amount of food and water to a child or a plant and expect it to grow and become strong and healthy. Each plant requires a certain amount of water and farmers are very good at making sure they get just what they need, nothing more and nothing less.

So, how much water do farmers use to grow crops in the Sacramento Valley? The California Department of Water Resources published the most recent facts that answer this question in its 2005 update of the California Water Plan. The department selected a wet year, a dry year and a normal year for its report to cover a wide range of weather conditions.

Based on the departmentÕs data, the amount of water consumed on farms to grow crops in the Sacramento Valley is small by comparison to the potential supply for the years selected by the state. Farms consumed an average of only about 10 percent of the potential water supply.

To put this into perspective, the average annual discharge of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the ocean , water no longer available for use, is more than four times the average amount of water consumed by crops in the Sacramento Valley for the same years.

In addition, water consumed by crops in the Sacramento Valley averages only 26 percent of the total amount of water dedicated for urban, agricultural and environmental uses for the same years.

It is time to stop blaming farmers for CaliforniaÕs water crisis. Shifting water around the state by draining it from one part and pouring it into another will not resolve the crisis. We need a solution to our water problem that doesnÕt sacrifice family farms and all the food, jobs and environmental benefits they provide.

Misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the facts about water use should not drive California water policy.

Ñ John GarnerÕs family and his brothersÕ and sistersÕ families work together farming their land in Glenn County in the Sacramento Valley.