California was ill prepared for the energy crisis. It is ill prepared for water shortages, which have become chronic and more severe. Farmers have been the first to feel the tightening grip of the chronic water shortages, which will eventually face all Californians. Pauli said the water crisis has arrived for 1,400 farmers in the Klamath Basin, which straddles the California-Oregon border. Irrigation supplies from the Klamath River Project have been cut off by the U.S. Interior Department in response to drought and allocations for endangered fish.
Water is the lifeblood of agriculture.
With it, fields, orchards and rural communities flourish. Without it, farmland becomes a dusty, unproductive landscape. Communities are drained of economic lifeblood. Farm Bureau places a high priority on elimination of the estate tax. The House approved H.R. 8 last month to repeal the tax.