President Barack Obama visited the Central Valley on Friday, Feb. 14 to address the California drought.
“We’re going to have to figure out how to play a different game,” Obama said.
California, according to Obama, is the nation’s biggest economy and agricultural producer. The drought here has an effect on every American and this includes the cost of the food that is made available.
With the severity of this drought in mind and the water usage cuts that are being made, Obama acknowledged what Californians have been doing in an attempt to help themselves.
“Californians have all had to come together and already make sacrifices, big and small, to help your neighbors and your state get through this,” he said. “The good news is California is always on the cutting-edge. Already you use water far more efficiently than you did decades ago. You do it smarter.”
In an attempt to alleviate some of the burden on the growers and producers, Obama has asked the Department of Agriculture to accelerate the process of assistance. This is no small task, but Obama has given the DOA a deadline of April 15.
Once the program is off the ground and the distribution of checks begins, it is estimated that California producers will receive about $100 million in assistance and the nation as a whole will receive up to $1 billion in assistance.
Obama also addressed the realization that a life built around farming is not easy. He discussed the issues and what he has noticed over the years.
“…over the years, I’ve seen how hard it can be to be a farmer,” Obama said. “There are a lot of big producers who are doing really well, but there are even more small farms, family farms, where folks are just scratching out a living and increasingly vulnerable to difficulties in financing and all the inputs involved — farmers sometimes having to work off the farm, they’ve got a couple of jobs outside the farm just to get health care, just to pay the bills, trying to keep it in the family, and it’s very hard for young farmers to get started.”