[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 172 (Thursday, November 19, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H13325-H13326]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE GLOBAL WATER AND HUNGER CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Costa) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to talk about the 
challenges we face both in this country, my district, and around the 
world on critical issues affecting our country and the world, and that 
is food, water, and hunger. Because without water, you can't grow food, 
and without the sufficient sustainability of our ability to produce 
food in this country and around the world, hunger continues to be a 
pressing issue both at home and abroad.
  Next week, Thanksgiving will be celebrated in this country, and we 
will all hopefully be with our families and friends. But in some parts 
of America, people will go hungry. In some parts of my district that 
has been ground zero on a drought that has been caused by a combination 
of regulatory and dry conditions for 3 consecutive years in California, 
we will have people in food lines. Sadly, these food lines have existed 
for months, and sadly, these food lines will continue throughout the 
winter because we have a problem in California. But that problem is 
exemplified throughout the world, and that is without sufficient water 
supplies, sustainable water supply, you cannot grow food, and without 
that ability, hunger persists.
  On October 15, Bill Gates spoke at the 2009 Food Prize Symposium 
about the importance of productivity and sustainability of agriculture 
to feed our Nation and the world. He said, ``This global effort to help 
small farmers is endangered by an ideological wedge that threatens to 
split the movement in two. On one side is a technological approach that 
increases productivity. On the other side is an environmental approach 
that promotes sustainability. Productivity or sustainability--they say 
you have to choose.''
  Bill Gates said, ``It's a false choice, and it's dangerous for the 
field. It blocks important advances. It breeds hostility among people 
who need to work together. And it makes it hard to launch a 
comprehensive program to help poor farmers. The fact is, we need both 
productivity and sustainability--and there is no reason we can't have 
both.''
  The San Joaquin Valley in my district in central California is a good 
example that we must have both, yet we find ourselves in a regulatory 
drought because we are faced with posing the question: Should we have 
sustainability or productivity? Farmers who produce some of the most 
varied amount of production anywhere in the world have proven that you 
can have both productivity and sustainability, provided, provided you 
have water. That's why Bill Gates went on to say, ``That's why our 
foundation works closely with local farmers' groups. And that's why we 
are one of the largest funders of sustainable approaches such as no-
till farming, rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation, and biological 
nitrous fixation.
  ``The environment also benefits from higher productivity. When 
productivity is too low, people start farming on grazing land, cutting 
down forests, using any new acreage they can to grow food. When 
productivity is high, people can farm on less land.''
  In our valley, we have proven that time and time again. I ask my 
colleagues to ensure that we hold this administration accountable.
  Last week, Secretary of the Interior Salazar made a positive 
statement. He said, on November 9, that the Department of the Interior 
will make a public announcement taking actions on California's water 
crisis next year to make sure that the intertie to Gates, the 
diversification of refuge water in level 2 and in level 4 supplies are 
made available to farmers and that the Patterson fish screen and 
pipeline will, in fact, take place next year. These are important.
  The last administration left these on the backlog for years. This 
administration pretends they are going to take place next year. I will 
hold them accountable. These projects are very important. Again, 
without water, you can't have food and you can't have jobs.
  I urge this administration to continue to move forward on these 
important efforts along with the National Academy of Science's attempt 
to look at the biological opinions that are providing the constraints 
to allow for the flexible operations of the Federal and State projects 
that provide the water to allow us to grow the food to have the jobs.
  As I close, my colleagues, let me tell you, we are talking about 
trying to get the economy going. We are going to be talking about a 
jobs package this year when we come back from Thanksgiving. If we 
provide water to the people of the San Joaquin Valley, we will have 
30,000 jobs that were eliminated this summer because we had no water. 
It's very simple. All we have to do is focus on flexibility with these 
biological opinions.
  We hope that before the National Academy of Science completes their 
work, the administration will understand that regardless of what kind 
of a rainfall year we have this winter and snow in the Sierra, it's 
important that we are sensitive to operational flexibility of the State 
and Federal projects.
  I urge all of my colleagues to understand that, as Bill Gates said, 
sustainability and productivity are key. You can have both. It should 
be a false

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choice. Water provides food, and that equals jobs.

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