Commentary

In 2014, California voters approved Proposition 1, setting aside $2.7 billion for water storage projects. They voted for dams. They voted for reservoirs. They voted to secure the future of their food supply. And yet, a decade later, no shovel has broken ground.

Instead, projects remain trapped in endless reviews, lawsuits, and regulations that seem designed to prevent progress rather than serve the people.

Meanwhile, California’s water doesn’t just belong to Californians. It irrigates the Central Valley—the land that grows a huge share of America’s fruits, vegetables, and nuts. If it’s not imported from Central or South America, there’s a good chance the produce in your grocery cart was grown in California’s soil.

Drive the I-5 through farm country and you’ll see the human cost. Billboards—some painted by hand, others on towering steel frames—cry out “Congress Created Dust Bowl.” Behind them stand acres of dead trees where vibrant orchards once flourished.

These were not abandoned for a lack of effort; they were starved for lack of water. In just the last eight years, America has lost 170,000 farms. California’s endless water restrictions push that number higher. Every acre cut off from irrigation is another nail in the coffin of our agrarian society.

But water is life. Without it, orchards die, fields go barren, and families are driven off the land. California’s refusal to honor its own voters’ demand for more storage is not just a state issue—it is a national one. Food security depends on farmers having the water they need to grow.

So how did we get here? How did human beings forget what every other mammal instinctively knows? Every other creature on earth prioritizes water, food, reproduction, and—in some cases—shelter.

Humans, on the other hand, have made comfort and convenience our gods while abandoning the basics that sustain life. We build luxury condos, high-speed internet, and electric car chargers, yet we fail to ensure enough water is stored to keep our orchards alive and our children fed.

Ask the average person in Los Angeles if they’re worried about dams being built or torn down, and most won’t give it a thought. It feels far away. But it isn’t. It shows up in whether families can afford fresh produce.

California voters have already spoken. They voted for storage. The money is there. The farmers are begging for it. It’s now time to build.

If America is to have food security, we must stop treating dams as villains and start seeing them for what they are: lifelines. Water is life. Without it, there is no food. Without food, there is no freedom.

Dead Orchards, Lost Farms: California’s Water Gridlock Deepens

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