Congress Creating California Dust Bowl

By Thomas Lifson

Can this be happening in America? Federal authorities are deliberately destroying farming in the nation's most productive agricultural region. Monica Showalter of Investor's Business Daily writes an outstanding report on the situation. She asks:

Would France rip out its storied vineyards? Would Juan Valdez scorch Colombia's coffee crop? Sri Lanka its black pepper harvest? China its tea?

With global markets won by nations specializing in doing what they do best, and with regional reputations important enough to drive some nations to protectionism, it's almost unthinkable.

But then there's California.

On a springtime drive through the Central Valley, it's hard not to notice how federal and state governments are hell-bent on destroying the state's top export - almonds - and everything else in the nation's most productive farmland.

Why is this happening? The first excuse was to save the snail darter, a small fish supposedly harmed in the process of sending water to the region. But other excuses are also invoked:

Congress and bureaucrats cite "drought," "global warming" and "endangered species" to deny water to this $37 billion breadbasket through arbitrary "environmental" quotas.

Farms are being destroyed. Heartbreaking pictures of dead orchards and other sites are featured.

If Congress can destroy farms in California, it can destroy any industry in any state.

This is insanity.