California law aimed at saving groundwater risks crushing state’s small farmers, according to report
Small farmers in the San Joaquin Valley are struggling with groundwater regulations to the point that 85% of 170 farmers surveyed for a recently released report said they were concerned they would have to shut down. Others said they are “cutting their farms in half, or more,” said Alyssa DeVincentis, one of the report’s authors, with the California Alliance with Family Farmers. … California enacted SGMA to prevent aquifers from drying up in the state’s most overtapped groundwater basins. It mandates that local agencies, Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs), develop plans to stop six “undesirable results” associated with withering aquifers. … The report argues the loss of small farms is a seventh undesirable result.
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