Despair as California's Central Valley dries up

[ensho]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090318/sc_afp/environmentwaterusdrought_20090318090753


"Now we know how the Indians felt," sighed Jim Diedrich, a farmer who said he was betrayed by the government as California's Central Valley reels from a serious drought.

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"We've got zero water this year," explained Diedrich, 66, who has spent 50 years working the land.

Like many other farmers in California, he had to leave idle most of his land in Firebaugh, 145 miles (230 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco. Gone are the 50,000 tons of tomatoes he would have sold for four million dollars.
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an aside: fruit and nut trees will go up in value and may require guarding in the future.