Life After Water
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
California's Central Valley produces more than half of America's produce, but the summer of 2015 marked the fourth year of what has become a monumental drought. Small family farmers like Jesus Ramos are in trouble, and if it doesn't rain soon the rest of the country will be soon feeling the effects, too.
Citation
Main credits
Ellis, Andrew Michael (film director)
Ellis, Andrew Michael (film producer)
Ellis, Andrew Michael (editor of moving image work)
Ellis, Andrew Michael (cinematographer)
Maierson, Eric (film producer)
Maierson, Eric (editor of moving image work)
Storm, Brian (film producer)
Storm, Brian (editor of moving image work)
Other credits
Cinematography, Andrew Michael Ellis, Alex Miskei, Ryan Youngblood.
Distributor subjects
American Studies, Latino Studies, migration, environment, farming, agriculture and food, government policies, labor studies, family issues, economy, community; Expository; WOKeywords
WEBVTT
00:00:08.959 --> 00:00:12.959
This is very spiritual.
00:00:12.959 --> 00:00:16.250
Very
00:00:16.250 --> 00:00:18.125
powerful.
00:00:20.751 --> 00:00:24.834
Water, it makes life.
00:00:27.500 --> 00:00:30.500
Water disappears,
00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:33.500
the labor disappears.
00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:39.584
Water disappears, my farming disappears.
00:00:42.292 --> 00:00:44.542
This area is extremely dry.
00:00:44.542 --> 00:00:46.375
And it’s not getting any better.
00:00:46.375 --> 00:00:50.250
People don’t realize how variable our climate is here.
00:00:50.250 --> 00:00:55.000
If you like the volatility and supply issues associated with gasoline prices,
00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:57.417
you are going to love what it is going to happen as far as food supply
00:00:57.417 --> 00:00:59.000
in the next five, ten years.
00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.167
Nobody’s going to want to buy oranges at five bucks a piece.
00:01:08.542 --> 00:01:11.420
My name is Jesus Ramos.
00:01:13.125 --> 00:01:14.250
I was born
00:01:14.250 --> 00:01:16.626
in Mexico City.
00:01:16.626 --> 00:01:19.292
The area all they could provide was schooling
00:01:19.292 --> 00:01:22.209
up to about sixth grade.
00:01:22.209 --> 00:01:27.792
So there was only one thing to do, go to the Norte
00:01:27.792 --> 00:01:33.292
like everybody else was doing.
00:01:33.292 --> 00:01:35.250
They handed me a bag,
00:01:35.250 --> 00:01:39.709
a little clipper and a ladder so I can pick oranges.
00:01:41.584 --> 00:01:44.459
That was the very beginnings.
00:01:46.792 --> 00:01:50.125
It\'s life,
00:01:50.125 --> 00:01:55.000
it\'s a series of tiny little goals that you set yourself up to accomplish.
00:01:56.792 --> 00:01:59.417
I\'m extremely proud of what I do.
00:01:59.417 --> 00:02:02.830
Every aspect of it.
00:02:02.830 --> 00:02:04.000
I love it!
00:02:05.917 --> 00:02:09.792
What is not to love?
00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:16.584
I own about 140 acres and we mainly grow oranges.
00:02:18.584 --> 00:02:20.375
I\'m what you see behind me.
00:02:20.375 --> 00:02:22.959
That\'s what we have become.
00:02:25.834 --> 00:02:28.459
When I bought my first farm,
00:02:28.459 --> 00:02:34.125
the field work was non-stop from my very arrival up to today.
00:02:35.167 --> 00:02:38.292
When we first moved out here we had icicles.
00:02:38.292 --> 00:02:40.830
It froze.
00:02:40.830 --> 00:02:42.667
We had ice icicles hanging from the trees,
00:02:42.667 --> 00:02:45.000
and I was like, “Oh no,
00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:47.250
we should have never bought this.”
00:02:47.250 --> 00:02:50.250
Oh gosh, it was terrible.
00:02:51.834 --> 00:02:54.459
You have cold weather. You have bugs.
00:02:54.459 --> 00:03:00.917
These are true concerns when you are in this business of farming.
00:03:00.917 --> 00:03:05.209
And, of course, what we\'re going through these days which is the lack of water.
00:03:12.292 --> 00:03:15.626
We are in a very severe drought in California.
00:03:15.626 --> 00:03:17.876
It is rated as extreme,
00:03:17.876 --> 00:03:21.500
about the worst drought classification that you could ask for.
00:03:22.626 --> 00:03:26.667
We’ve had losses in the several billion dollars this year
00:03:26.667 --> 00:03:29.250
in terms of the economic return to the farmers.
00:03:31.459 --> 00:03:33.375
How long it will last?
00:03:33.375 --> 00:03:36.125
You know, we’ve had droughts one year that are incredible.
00:03:36.125 --> 00:03:37.876
And we have had droughts that are 100 years
00:03:37.876 --> 00:03:39.375
and there is absolutely no well to tell.
00:03:39.375 --> 00:03:41.375
All the people that say El Nino will save us,
00:03:41.375 --> 00:03:45.334
are smoking a controlled substance.
00:03:47.709 --> 00:03:49.626
A lot of people are losing their land,
00:03:49.626 --> 00:03:53.709
losing their trees, losing their whole life.
00:03:56.834 --> 00:04:00.125
You can\'t have a full packing house staff
00:04:00.125 --> 00:04:02.709
unless you have that produce to come out,
00:04:02.709 --> 00:04:06.709
so you see a lot of people getting laid off.
00:04:07.959 --> 00:04:10.542
There\'s families in these little towns
00:04:10.542 --> 00:04:16.417
and everybody just depends on the work that these farms provide.
00:04:16.417 --> 00:04:21.917
I would a thousand times rather not have anything to eat myself,
00:04:21.917 --> 00:04:26.709
but that payroll check to those workers is completely sacred.
00:04:29.667 --> 00:04:34.876
There has been a shift in policy changes from Washington and the state of California
00:04:34.876 --> 00:04:41.420
away from communities, business and agriculture to the environment.
00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:43.417
People argue that you can always adapt,
00:04:43.417 --> 00:04:47.375
but the people that will be left to adapt will be the corporate producer.
00:04:47.375 --> 00:04:51.830
The people that will be left to adapt will be singularly focused.
00:04:52.125 --> 00:04:55.375
Profit.
00:04:55.375 --> 00:04:58.626
It won’t be emotion, it won’t be providing food.
00:04:58.626 --> 00:05:01.167
It will be profit.
00:05:02.375 --> 00:05:05.125
If we continue with this drought,
00:05:05.125 --> 00:05:09.792
the land will devalue to almost nothing.
00:05:09.792 --> 00:05:14.000
You probably wouldn\'t even be able to sell it,
00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:21.584
What would be my options?
00:05:21.584 --> 00:05:24.959
Trying to salvage as much as I could and run?
00:05:24.959 --> 00:05:26.830
Chase the water?
00:05:26.830 --> 00:05:28.830
Go to Washington State?
00:05:28.830 --> 00:05:31.959
Yes, let’s do that, let’s go to Washington State!
00:05:39.959 --> 00:05:42.459
I don\'t want to go to Washington State.
00:05:43.876 --> 00:05:46.709
There is water to be found in the state.
00:05:46.709 --> 00:05:50.459
It is just not being made available to the San Joaquin Valley
00:05:50.459 --> 00:05:54.751
Because we are a very low income, rural population
00:05:54.751 --> 00:05:59.167
with less representation in the legislature than our urban counterparts.
00:05:59.167 --> 00:06:02.830
I mean this is really a David and Goliath battle
00:06:02.830 --> 00:06:04.584
over a resource.
00:06:05.626 --> 00:06:10.792
This is the second year that we are at zero water allocation.
00:06:10.792 --> 00:06:14.584
You have to make the sacrifice and purchase the water
00:06:14.584 --> 00:06:16.834
at whatever price they sell it to you.
00:06:16.834 --> 00:06:17.876
I wanted to show you
00:06:17.876 --> 00:06:20.167
this.
00:06:20.167 --> 00:06:28.834
Water alone was $33,730 to make a crop that paid $16,000.
00:06:28.834 --> 00:06:30.830
You tell me
00:06:30.830 --> 00:06:34.420
if survival is in our horizon.
00:06:35.584 --> 00:06:40.709
If this coming winter doesn\'t rain and it doesn\'t rain plenty,
00:06:40.709 --> 00:06:47.375
I will not be able to sustain those losses very long.
00:06:47.375 --> 00:06:50.209
We got a letter saying the price of the water.
00:06:50.209 --> 00:06:53.417
So we sat at the table and we decided well,
00:06:53.417 --> 00:06:56.500
we’ve got to have water for certain groves
00:06:56.500 --> 00:06:59.500
so we had to knock these ones out.
00:07:13.375 --> 00:07:18.334
The permanent crop, you are hoping that that is a crop that you are going to protect
00:07:18.334 --> 00:07:21.876
and perpetuate year-after-year for 30-plus years.
00:07:28.420 --> 00:07:31.830
For Jesus to actually bulldoze out trees,
00:07:31.830 --> 00:07:34.792
he’s determining that he is not going to have a future opportunity
00:07:34.792 --> 00:07:40.420
to recapture that crop for 30 years out.
00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:47.167
Our business is becoming really small, very rapidly.
00:07:48.626 --> 00:07:49.459
What\'s going to happen to your kids?
00:07:49.459 --> 00:07:52.709
What\'s going to happen to the people that work with you?
00:07:54.834 --> 00:08:01.959
Everybody would have to spread out to look for somewhere to live and work.
00:08:01.959 --> 00:08:06.420
I don’t like thinking about that a whole lot.
00:08:23.334 --> 00:08:25.751
Do you question your faith?
00:08:25.751 --> 00:08:30.292
Your belief in God when you see these things?
00:08:32.417 --> 00:08:36.751
I try not to.
00:08:36.751 --> 00:08:41.709
Your tone changes whenever you talk to him and say, Hey,
00:08:45.420 --> 00:08:41.709
you\'re pushing a little hard, no?