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Indybay Feature
Tue Dec 29 2009 (Updated 01/01/10)
Mother Jones Article Promotes Corporate Agribusiness Astroturfing
Raging Water War in the San Joaquin Valley with Fish, Farmworkers and Agribusiness
A poorly researched article on California water, the "New Dust Bowl," is online and appeared in the November-December edition of Mother Jones magazine, a publication known for its investigative reporting. Dan Bacher, an Indybay contributor and editor for Fish Sniffer, critiques the article, stating, "The 'New Dust Bowl' sounds just like a headline from the Sean Hannity Show or Fox 'News' - and the article reads like a propaganda piece for growers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley."
"On the west side of the valley, which is often last in line for deliveries from federal water projects, farmers are selling prized almond trees for firewood, fields are reverting to weed, and farmworkers who once fled droughts in Mexico are overwhelming food banks," claims the author, Josh Harkinson. "In short, the valley is becoming what an earlier generation of refugees thought they'd escaped: an ecological catastrophe in the middle of a social and economic one—a 21st century Dust Bowl."
In falsely portraying the west side as "a 21st century Dust Bowl," Harkinson sounds here like a speech writer for one of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's rants for a rally of the Latino Water Coalition, an "Astroturf" organization set up by the Governor and San Joaquin Valley growers to put a "human face" on corporate agribusiness in order to promote the construction of a peripheral canal and more dams and to strip protections for Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt and other fish species under the Endangered Species Act.
Read more | The PR Firm from Hell | Another Right Wing March and Rally for Water | The Three Big Lies Behind the Peripheral Canal | Arnold Astroturfs His Way to Environmental Destruction | Environmental Groups Around State Oppose Scary Legislative Water Package | San Joaquin Poverty and Industrial Agribusiness: Law Review Article by Lloyd Carter | We Expected Better of the Network That Gave Us Edward R. Murrow | USDA Data Dispels Myth that West Side Growers 'Feed the Nation'
"On the west side of the valley, which is often last in line for deliveries from federal water projects, farmers are selling prized almond trees for firewood, fields are reverting to weed, and farmworkers who once fled droughts in Mexico are overwhelming food banks," claims the author, Josh Harkinson. "In short, the valley is becoming what an earlier generation of refugees thought they'd escaped: an ecological catastrophe in the middle of a social and economic one—a 21st century Dust Bowl."
In falsely portraying the west side as "a 21st century Dust Bowl," Harkinson sounds here like a speech writer for one of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's rants for a rally of the Latino Water Coalition, an "Astroturf" organization set up by the Governor and San Joaquin Valley growers to put a "human face" on corporate agribusiness in order to promote the construction of a peripheral canal and more dams and to strip protections for Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt and other fish species under the Endangered Species Act.
Read more | The PR Firm from Hell | Another Right Wing March and Rally for Water | The Three Big Lies Behind the Peripheral Canal | Arnold Astroturfs His Way to Environmental Destruction | Environmental Groups Around State Oppose Scary Legislative Water Package | San Joaquin Poverty and Industrial Agribusiness: Law Review Article by Lloyd Carter | We Expected Better of the Network That Gave Us Edward R. Murrow | USDA Data Dispels Myth that West Side Growers 'Feed the Nation'
2024-06-11
If Passed, Measure J Will Ban "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations"
Front Page
| North Bay / Marin
| Government & Elections
| Animal Liberation2024-06-11
Activists Stand in Solidarity with Horses Who Lost Their Lives at Race Track
Front Page
| East Bay
| Animal Liberation2024-06-11
Two Years After Shireen Abu Akleh Was Killed, There Still Is No Justice
Front Page
| Anti-War
| Media Activism & Independent Media
| San Francisco
| International
| Palestine2024-06-11
Crisis Team Provides Students with Non-Police Response to Mental Health Crises
Front Page
| Police State & Prisons
| Health, Housing & Public Services
| Education & Student Activism
| California
| Santa Cruz Indymedia2024-06-11
Only a Couple of Thousand Adult Leatherback Turtles Remain in the Pacific Ocean
Front Page
| Environment & Forest Defense
| San Francisco
| Peninsula
| North Bay / Marin
| North Coast
| California
| Animal Liberation
| Santa Cruz Indymedia2024-05-25
Demonstrators Denounce Tech Giant's Contracts with Israeli Military
Front Page
| Anti-War
| Peninsula
| U.S.
| International
| Palestine2024-05-13
Actions Call on Biden to Declare a Climate Emergency and End Fossil Fuels
Front Page
| Environment & Forest Defense
| Global Justice & Anti-Capitalism
| Education & Student Activism
| San Francisco
| Peninsula
| California
| U.S.
| Palestine2024-05-08
Resistance to Deceptive Forest Service Measure Is Growing
Front Page
| Environment & Forest Defense
| Central Valley
| California
| U.S.2024-05-08
Regulators Fail to Protect Schoolchildren from Repeated Exposure to Dangerous Pesticides
Front Page
| Environment & Forest Defense
| Racial Justice
| Health, Housing & Public Services
| Labor & Workers
| Education & Student Activism
| Santa Cruz Indymedia2024-04-24
Across the Globe, Students Set Up Encampments in Solidarity with Palestinians
Front Page
| Police State & Prisons
| Anti-War
| Education & Student Activism
| Central Valley
| San Francisco
| South Bay
| East Bay
| Peninsula
| North Bay / Marin
| North Coast
| California
| U.S.
| International
| Palestine
| Santa Cruz Indymedia2024-04-09
Deal Described as One of the Most Significant Urban Land Back Victories in US History
Front Page
| Environment & Forest Defense
| Racial Justice
| East Bay
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