California water crisis challenges dairy

Water is front-of-mind for California dairy farmers, as scarcity is threatening to change the industry structure of the top U.S. dairy-producing state. While successful adjustments to a lower-water future are possible, the state badly needs moisture in the next few months to stave off greater immediate hardship for milk producers and improved government policy to help dairy prosper in the longer term, said Geoff Vanden Heuvel, director of regulatory and economic affairs for the California-based Milk Producers Council.

“I put 2,500 to 3,000 miles a month of my truck just driving up and down the Valley going to water meetings, and to see what’s been built here is just incredible and marvelous,” said Vanden Heuvel in a Dairy Defined podcast released today. “We’re running the risk of losing that if we don’t do some things intelligently.”

The full podcast is here. You can also find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music. A transcript is linked below. Broadcast outlets may use the MP3 file. Please attribute information to NMPF