2008
Water Stewardship: Ensuring a Secure Future for California Agriculture
(16 pages)

With funding from the Columbia Foundation and in collaboration with the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Ecological Farming Association, Polaris Institute and WATER Institute of the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, CIRS participated in the development of a “Blue Paper” promoting improved water stewardship in agriculture. The report calls for producers and policy-makers to recognize the importance of agricultural water stewardship as a key element of a strategy to better manage the state’s dwindling water resources and reduce farmers’ reliance on insecure inputs. It outlines the case for water stewardship and lays the foundation for a water stewardship strategy.

Please visit http://www.agwaterstewards.org/ for more information on this initiative.

1998
How Effective are Voluntary Agricultural Pesticide Use Programs? A Study of Pesticide Use in California Almond and Walnut Production by Don Villarejo and Charles V. Moore (36 pages)

Total pesticide use in U.S. agriculture has continued to increase in recent years. This report examines the effectiveness of programs designed to reduce pesticide use among California almond and walnut growers.

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Information and Pesticide Management: A study of the Impact of Information Availability and Pesticide Use in California Almond and Walnut Production
by Don Villarejo and Charles V. Moore (30 pages)

This report compares pesticide use by two carefully matched cohort groups of almond and walnut growers in California's Central Valley: one group advised by independent pest control advisors, and one group advised by chemical company representatives. Data on advisor fees, pesticide use and expenditure, yields and rejection rates are all analyzed.

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1996
93640 at Risk: Farmers, Workers and Townspeople in an Era of Water Uncertainty
by Don Villarejo (39 pages)

In this detailed case study of the effect of the 1987-1992 droughts on the farm town of Mendota, CIRS finds that irrigation cutbacks have hurt farm communities. It was discovered that reductions of irrigation deliveries from the Central Valley Project adversely affected farm employment and wages, which in turn caused declines in produce packing and shipping, as well as local spending, retail sales, taxes, and city revenue.

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Critique of the Report, "Economic Impact of Methyl Bromide Cancellations"
by Charles Moore and Don Villarejo (14 pages)

Critique of the January 1996 report by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which described economic impacts that were predicted to result from the potential suspension of the pesticide methyl bromide. The CDFA report is found to be seriously in error, based on faulty economic analysis

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1995
A Review of Economic Models Used to Assess the Impact of Canceling Pesticide Registrations (A Search for Chicken Little) by Charles V. Moore and Don Villarejo (49 pages)

Existing economic models that are used to assess the financial impacts of canceling pesticide registrations are biased toward the status quo, as demonstrated in this paper. Ethyl parathion was banned in 1991, amidst predictions of serious crop losses. This paper tests the reliability of both the predictions and the underlying economic models on which they are based. 

Impact of Reduced Water Supplies on Central Valley Agriculture by Don Villarejo (34 pages)

The extended period of drought in California from 1987-1992, and the accompanying reductions of federal irrigation water to Central Valley agriculture, provide a real-world case study of the likely effects of permanents cuts in water for farming. This report examines the impact of reduced Central Valley Project water deliveries on agricultural production, and discusses related policy issues.

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1989
Troubled Waters/Troubled Lands by Judith Redmond (10 pages)

Because water is such a fundamental resource, agricultural water policy touches all of us. Small-scale farmers feel threatened by the rising cost of scarce water and rural residents see firsthand how water policy affects the nature of their communities. Our environment also suffers as more water is diverted for human uses. This booklet describes how a coalition of small-scale farmers, environmentalists, and nonpartisan rural organizers found common ground in a lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Reclamation to struggle for their vision of equitable water distribution in the West.

Survey of Research on the Impacts of Pesticides on Agricultural Workers and the Rural Environment by Paul G. Barnett (47 pages)

This Working Paper investigates many issues related to pesticide use, including incidence, diagnosis and treatment of illness, safety of workers, long term health effects, and contamination of water and air.

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1988
Missed Opportunities/Squandered Resources: Why Prosperity Brought By Water Doesn't Trickle Down in the California Central Valley by Don Villarejo and Judith Redmond (84 pages)

Findings of a study into implementation of reclamation law in the Westlands Water District where huge farm operations receive federally subsidized irrigation water. The study documents the methods by which these farms evade federal acreage limitations, and the report describes the impact on rural communities.

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1981
New Lands for Agriculture: The California State Water Project
by Don Villarejo with the Assistance of Jude Crisfield and Phyllis White (18 pages)

A detailed examination of land ownership and use in the San Joaquin Valley service area of the State Water Project. This report explains the expansion of California agriculture into previously uncultivated areas of the state.

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