California's rivers and wetlands, and the critical San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem, have suffered serious degradation as a result of excessive water diversions. Much of the water taken out of the ecosystem goes to support California's industrial agriculture. Agriculture now uses approximately 80 percent of California's developed water supply, but produces less than 2.5 percent of California's income.

Alfalfa, the biggest water user of any California crop, soaks up almost a quarter of the state's irrigation water. Yet alfalfa -- harvested mostly for hay to feed dairy livestock -- is a low-value crop that accounts for only 4 percent of state farming revenues. An alfalfa farm using 240 acre-feet of water generates $60,000 in sales, while a semiconductor plant using the same amount of water generates 5,000 times that amount, or $300 million. (And while such a farm could function with as few as two workers, the semiconductor plant would employ 2,000.) In short, California devotes 20 percent of its developed water supply to a crop that generates less than one-tenth of one percent of the state's economy. Given the degraded state of California's rivers and growing demands for water for higher value agricultural crops and urban areas, is this an efficient use of a precious resource?

Alfalfa covers more of California's land than any other kind of produce. About 26 percent is grown in the state's parched southern deserts, and despite the existence of demonstrated techniques for achieving high crop yields with water-saving methods -- such as drip irrigation and bedded alfalfa -- most California growers use inefficient irrigation techniques such as flooding.

Excessive water use isn't the only cost associated with alfalfa crops. Seventy percent of the state's alfalfa feeds California's largest agricultural industry: its dairy cows. Dairy farms in the Central Valley alone produce as much waste as a city of 21 million; illegal manure waste from dairies is believed to threaten the drinking water of 65 percent of Californians. In total, 7,000 gallons of water go into keeping a single cow alive for a single day, yielding a daily return of about 30 cents. Wasteful subsidies worsen this problem by increasing dairy demand for alfalfa.

Although alfalfa does yield some environmental benefits -- maintaining soil health, providing some wildlife habitat and preventing erosion through its extensive root systems -- current production levels are unsustainable, contributing to the destruction of ecosystems all over the state. Even a modest reduction in production would result in tremendous water savings.

Addressing the alfalfa problem is all about changing how we manage our water supply -- we need to make systemic changes that will encourage markets to work. Among the measures that NRDC recommends:

• Technical and financial assistance to guide farmers toward better irrigation systems;
  
  
• Encouraging dry year water transfers to other crops, to the environment and to water-short cities;
  
  
• New research on alternative crops (for example, corn uses far less water);
  
  
• Strict enforcement of the 960-acre limitation for federal water subsidies in the short term;
  
  
• Phaseout of federal water subsidies and other below-cost pricing mechanisms in the long term.

last revised 6.7.01