Rudy Mussi, who farms in the Sacramento Delta, “is not the California farmer you’ve been hearing about,” says the NPR blog The Salt. “He is not fallowing all his fields or ripping up his orchards due to a lack of irrigation water.” There’s plenty of water because the delta is fed by two of California’s largest rivers. There’s also an emerging fight over how to allocate the water, some of which is diverted to the Central Valley, where water is scarce and growers stand in line behind Delta farmers in the right to access to water. “The fact that farmers are pointing fingers at other farmers shows just how big of a disaster this drought has become, and how political the issue of water is here in the country’s most productive food-growing state,” says NPR.
Strawberry, blueberry and raspberry production in California is down slightly this year, compared to 2014’s pace, says Capital Press. California is the largest strawberry-growing state in the nation.