It’s no surprise that Lawrence Easterling (Letters, Jan. 19) promotes turning up the spigots to send more water to the San Joaquin Valley, further draining the Delta. Easterling is a pistachio farmer. Pistachio markets totaled 632 million pounds shipped during the last crop year, representing $1.5 billion in revenue. Export shipments were 437 million pounds, or about 70 percent of that total.
Pistachios are extremely water-intensive. They require an average of 4 feet of water depth, the fourth highest crop in terms of water intensity (the average depth of water applied to a crop). It takes 3/4 of a gallon of water to grow one pistachio nut. Planted acreage has grown over 10-fold since 1979. Why? Because it is extremely profitable. Don’t be fooled: nut farmers in the Central Valley want more and more Delta water because they are making millions of dollars on exports, while threatening the habitat and populations of salmon and other species.
Mike Culcasi
San Jose
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