Hmong farmers at the center of California pot raids
More than 1,500 Hmong farmers have moved to Northern California’s Siskiyou County and now raise as much as $1 billion-worth of marijuana, according to some estimates. But locals haven’t been pleased to see the newcomers or their crop, which law enforcement destroys during raids, claiming that the pot is sold to the black market.
Drought and dry wells are added burden for Hmong farmers
More than four dozen of the 900 Hmong farmers in Fresno County say the five-year California drought is affecting their operations, mostly by drying up the wells they need to water their crops, says the Sacramento Bee. The refugees from Southeast Asia account for the bulk of the 1,500 small farms in the county and most of them earn a modest income from their rented land, so there is no easy solution.