Food Security In The United States

William B. Lacey, Lawrence M. Busch

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780429716478
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Agricultural Public Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Despite the fact that every year it produces a larger surplus of agricultural products than any other country in the world, the U.S. still must contend with a number of important but often unaddressed issues related to food security, including problems of soil erosion, water supply, energy availability, nutrition; farm worker health and safety, and product distribution. This book; containing contributions from authorities in both the natural and social sciences, expands the range of issues pertinent to the security of the U.S. food system, taking into account the adequacy and sustainability of the food supply, equity in access to food by the entire population, the nutritional quality of food, and the costs and benefits (social, economic, and health) of the food system as it is presently organized. Each of the authors considers an aspect of U.S. food security from the point of view of a specific discipline, as well as in terms of broader policy implications.

Water

4
Domestic Food Security and Increasing Competition for Water

E. Phillip LeVeen

The decade of the 1970s witnessed some dramatic changes in the world food economy. Between 1973 and 1975 a series of events sent U.S. and world farm commodity prices soaring to spectacular heights, forcing a sharp rise in the real costs of food. Suddenly the world seemed to have run out of food as demand for U.S. farm exports jumped dramatically. With the coming of the "world food crisis," modern-day Malthusians were quick to claim that population growth had finally outstripped food production. Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture in the Nixon Administration, saw the crisis as a golden opportunity for the U.S. and advised farmers to plant "fence row to fence row" to make the most of the expected increases in exports to a hungry world. Even usually cautious economists, such as Edward Schuh, one-time president of the American Agricultural Economics Association, predicted a "new era" of increasing pressure on agricultural resources in which all of the problems of excess capacity that prevailed in the 1950s and 1960s would be replaced by shortages and rising prices (Schuh, 1976).

Subsequent events have shown these Malthusian predictions to be, at least, premature; the old problems of overproduction and low farm prices returned after 1976, with the slowing of international demand for U.S. farm commodities and a substantial expansion of domestic production. Once again, government price support and acreage diversion programs were instituted to support farmers who had followed Butz' advice by investing heavily in new equipment and land, only to find it impossible to meet debt repayments from their declining incomes. Yet by the early 1980s, even the increased public support was insufficient to prevent a deep depression in U.S. agriculture rivaling that of the 1930s.

In recent years, this crisis of overproduction has shifted public attention- away from an important debate over whether the United States can continue to expand its agricultural production to accommodate the growing international demand for food without straining its resource base and threatening long-term productivity. (USDA, 1981; Wessel and Hantman, 1983). Now the severe drought of 1983, which has depleted a substantial portion of the nation's grain stocks and in turn will soon trigger higher food prices, reminds us that agricultural production is indeed subject to limits and it should serve to renew the debate.

This chapter examines one aspect of this debate; namely, the possible relationships between food production capacity, the limits on additional irrigation development, and overall food security. It will be argued that there is little potential remaining for expanding irrigation and limited irrigation development will, in combination with other factors, reduce the potential growth of the nation's food production capacity. If important reforms are not undertaken to reduce foreign demand for U.S. grown food, food prices will likely rise substantially, threatening domestic food security.

This is not intended to be a Malthusian argument, however, for our limited production capacity could be used much more efficiently to maintain domestic food security than is now the case. Indeed, limited productive capacity will critically test those institutions that determine how and what kinds of foods are produced and, even more important, how available food supplies are distributed. If limits on production capacity should lead to Malthusian-like food shortages, the fault will lie in our inability to change these political and economic institutions, and not with inadequate food and nutrition production capacity.

INCREASING WATER SCARCITY FOR AGRICULTURE: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

In the past two years, many popular magazines have carried articles with the theme that the energy crisis of the 1970s will be replaced by an equivalent water crisis of the 1980s. The scientific literature on water supplies also confirms the dawning of a new era of "scarcity," especially in the arid regions of the West(1). Current water use exceeds average stream flows in most of the West's major watersheds, while groundwater is being depleted in many important basins. Table 4.1 provides a perspective on the overappropriation of most significant Western rivers. Only five of these streams, located along the northwestern Pacific coast, can provide enough water to meet current water demand during dry years. A critical concern of most water users is reliability of supply, and dry-year access to water is a key characteristic of water supply. While 50 percent of these rivers have more than enough water in average rainfall years to meet current demand, further expansion of water consumption would reduce reliability of supply during dry years and therefore such expansion would be detrimental(2).

TABLE 4.1 Total Water Use As a Percent of Stream Flow in Average and Dry Years

Name	Average	Dry
S0UR1S-RED-RAINY	62%	110%
MISSOURI	87	120
Missouri-Milk-Saskatchawan	82	105
Missouri-Marias	82	104
Missouri-Musselshell	81	102
Yellowstone	96	117
Western Dakotas	84	108
Eastern Dakotas	82	102
North and South Platte	140	160
Niobrara-Platte-Loup	103	122
Middle Missouri	91	107
Kansas	123	191
Lower Missouri	87	120
ARKANSAS-WHITE-RED	83	138
Upper White	84	126
Upper Arkansas	134	175
Arkansas-Cimarron	114	243
Lower Arkansas	83	152
Canadian	122	261
Red-Washita	129	180
Red-Sulphur	83	133
TEXAS-GULF	101	197
Sabina-Neches	85	163
Trinity-Galveston Bay	89	176
Brazos	142	327
Colorado (Texas)	119	188
Nueces-Texas Coastal	96	183
CALIFORNIA	82	113
Klamath-North Coastal	65	95
Sacramento-Lahontan	76	106
San Joaquin-Tulare	109	131
San Francisco Bay	91	152
Central California Coast	83	169
Southern California	107	116
Lahontan-South	243	290
RIO GRANDE	136	180
Rio Grande Headwaters	110	159
Middle Rio Grande	140	165
Rio Grande-Pecos	148%	176%
Upper Pecos	144	177
Lower Rio Grande	136	180
UPPER COLORADO	84	112
Green-White-Yampa	87	114
Colorado-Gunnison	80	106
Colorado-San Juan	84	112
LOWER COLORADO	225	239
Little Colorado	80	103
Lower Colorado Main Stream	225	239
Gila	304	315
GREAT BASIN	125	158
Bear-Great Salt Lake	102	125
Sevier Lake	186	204
Humboldt-Tonopah Desert	177	222
Central Lahontan	116	165
PACIFIC NORTHWEST	84	102
Clark Fork-Kootenai	62	73
Upper/Middle Columbia	79	94
Upper/Central Snake	91	119
Lower Snake	78	96
Coast-Lower Columbia	85	102
Puget Sound	81	96
Oregon Closed Basin	101	161

Source: U.S. Water Resources Council, 1978.

Table 4.2 describes the "mining" of groundwater throughout the West. "Mining" means pumping groundwater faster than it is naturally recharged, so that the resource is depleted. These extraction rates cannot be sustained, either because the water resource is eventually depleted or because the additional pumping costs incurred as the water table drops make it uneconomic to continue pumping. As indicated by Table 4.2, most aquifers are being depleted, so eventually the groundwater use in most areas will decline from current levels. Since more than 50 percent of the water supply in the West comes from underground, the reduction in pumping rates will have substantial effects on overall water availability.

TABLE 4.2 Groundwater Mining As a Percent of Annual Consumption

Name	Mining Rate
MISSOURI	17
Missouri-Musselshell	1
Western Dakotas	2
Eastern Dakotas	7
North and South Platte	13
Niobrara-Platte-Loup	13
Lower Missouri	5
Middle Missouri	16
Kansas	41
ARKANSAS-WHITE-RED	68
Upper White	2
Upper Arkansas	3
Arkansas-Cimarron	103
Lower Arkansas	2
Canadian	85
Red-Washita	55
Red-Sulphur	1
CALIFORNIA	8
Sacramento-Lahontan	4
San Joaquin-Tulare	10
Central California Coast	10
Southern California	8
Lahontan-South	43
RIO GRANDE	16
Middle Rio Grande	21
Rio Grande-Pecos	46
Upper Pecos	16
Lower Rio Grande	1
LOWER COLORADO	53
Little Colorado	7
Lower Colorado Main Stream	27
Gila	61
GREAT BASIN	16
Bear-Great Salt Lake	3
Sevier Lake	40
Humboldt-Tonopah Desert	27
Central Lahontan	3
PACIFIC NORTHWEST	5
Clark Fork-Kootenai	2
Upper/Middle Columbia	8
Upper/Central Snake	4
Lower Snake	7
Coast-Lower Columbia	2
Oregon Closed Basin	2

Source: U.S. Water Resources Council, 1978.

Agriculture now uses more than 85 percent of the West's total water supply, and therefore any reduction in the supply will have its greatest impact on this sector. This conclusion is reinforced by the fact that agriculture faces intense competition for water supplies from the growing urban centers, from new businesses anxious to develop western coal and oil resources, and from environmentalists wishing to preserve remaining undeveloped streams for recreational and other purposes. Many of these competitors can afford to pay considerably higher prices for water. In short, the increase in demand for a declining water supply will mean that agriculture will have a difficult time maintaining its current supply, let along procuring additional water supplies.

In the past, competition for water would have led to pressures on the public sector, both federal and state, to develop new water supplies and thus to satisfy all interests; indeed, pressures for development are still strong. However, the potential for new development is limited. Additional water development is technically feasible, especially in the Northwest, but the amount of water that can be captured by new dams and canals is small relative to the overdr...