Monday March 6, 2023
Sacramento Bee —
Jennifer Peters signed on to have her Madera ranch become the site of an experiment in replenishing groundwater in California’s Central Valley.
Though this pilot program led by a subdivision of the United States Department of Agriculture is far from the first effort to address the depletion of groundwater stores, it offers farmers like Peters hope for the future of agriculture in the region.
“If the generation that’s running the ranch now, my son, doesn’t buy into this and start improving the water quality, we’re all going to be in a world of hurt by the time the sixth generation wants to come up,” Peters said. “There’ll be no farming.”
Peters is a fourth-generation farmer who operates Markarian Family LP with her father and son. They cultivate wine grapes and almonds, crops that require irrigation to grow in the Central Valley.