Homeless Farmworkers in the Central Valley from New America Media on Vimeo.
Aid workers are finding farm workers who have live in cold, unused orchards all winter because there are no jobs. Unemployment in some of the farming counties is now over 30%.
One of the reasons is the endless water wars of California and the southwest
According to the Westlands Water District, 240,000 out of roughly 600,000 acres of farmable land in western Fresno and Kings Counties sat idle in 2009, a result of less water being pumped from the Sacramento Delta south into the San Luis and Coalinga Canals that feed central valley farms. The outlook for 2010 is improved, but still extreme. The district expects 170,000 acres will be fallow again this year.