WEBVTT

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This is very spiritual.

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Very

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powerful.

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Water, it makes life.

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Water disappears,

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the labor disappears.

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Water disappears, my farming disappears.

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This area is extremely dry.

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And it’s not getting any better.

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People don’t realize how variable our climate is here.

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If you like the volatility and supply issues associated with gasoline prices,

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you are going to love what it is going to happen as far as food supply

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in the next five, ten years.

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Nobody’s going to want to buy oranges at five bucks a piece.

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My name is Jesus Ramos.

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I was born

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in Mexico City.

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The area all they could provide was schooling

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up to about sixth grade.

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So there was only one thing to do, go to the Norte

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like everybody else was doing.

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They handed me a bag,

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a little clipper and a ladder so I can pick oranges.

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That was the very beginnings.

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It\'s life,

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it\'s a series of tiny little goals that you set yourself up to accomplish.

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I\'m extremely proud of what I do.

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Every aspect of it.

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I love it!

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What is not to love?

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I own about 140 acres and we mainly grow oranges.

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I\'m what you see behind me.

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That\'s what we have become.

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When I bought my first farm,

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the field work was non-stop from my very arrival up to today.

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When we first moved out here we had icicles.

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It froze.

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We had ice icicles hanging from the trees,

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and I was like, “Oh no,

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we should have never bought this.”

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Oh gosh, it was terrible.

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You have cold weather. You have bugs.

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These are true concerns when you are in this business of farming.

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And, of course, what we\'re going through these days which is the lack of water.

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We are in a very severe drought in California.

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It is rated as extreme,

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about the worst drought classification that you could ask for.

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We’ve had losses in the several billion dollars this year

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in terms of the economic return to the farmers.

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How long it will last?

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You know, we’ve had droughts one year that are incredible.

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And we have had droughts that are 100 years

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and there is absolutely no well to tell.

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All the people that say El Nino will save us,

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are smoking a controlled substance.

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A lot of people are losing their land,

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losing their trees, losing their whole life.

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You can\'t have a full packing house staff

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unless you have that produce to come out,

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so you see a lot of people getting laid off.

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There\'s families in these little towns

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and everybody just depends on the work that these farms provide.

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I would a thousand times rather not have anything to eat myself,

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but that payroll check to those workers is completely sacred.

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There has been a shift in policy changes from Washington and the state of California

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away from communities, business and agriculture to the environment.

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People argue that you can always adapt,

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but the people that will be left to adapt will be the corporate producer.

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The people that will be left to adapt will be singularly focused.

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Profit.

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It won’t be emotion, it won’t be providing food.

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It will be profit.

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If we continue with this drought,

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the land will devalue to almost nothing.

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You probably wouldn\'t even be able to sell it,

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What would be my options?

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Trying to salvage as much as I could and run?

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Chase the water?

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Go to Washington State?

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Yes, let’s do that, let’s go to Washington State!

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I don\'t want to go to Washington State.

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There is water to be found in the state.

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It is just not being made available to the San Joaquin Valley

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Because we are a very low income, rural population

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with less representation in the legislature than our urban counterparts.

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I mean this is really a David and Goliath battle

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over a resource.

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This is the second year that we are at zero water allocation.

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You have to make the sacrifice and purchase the water

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at whatever price they sell it to you.

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I wanted to show you

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this.

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Water alone was $33,730 to make a crop that paid $16,000.

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You tell me

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if survival is in our horizon.

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If this coming winter doesn\'t rain and it doesn\'t rain plenty,

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I will not be able to sustain those losses very long.

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We got a letter saying the price of the water.

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So we sat at the table and we decided well,

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we’ve got to have water for certain groves

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so we had to knock these ones out.

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The permanent crop, you are hoping that that is a crop that you are going to protect

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and perpetuate year-after-year for 30-plus years.

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For Jesus to actually bulldoze out trees,

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he’s determining that he is not going to have a future opportunity

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to recapture that crop for 30 years out.


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Our business is becoming really small, very rapidly.

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What\'s going to happen to your kids?

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What\'s going to happen to the people that work with you?

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Everybody would have to spread out to look for somewhere to live and work.

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I don’t like thinking about that a whole lot.

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Do you question your faith?

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Your belief in God when you see these things?

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I try not to.

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Your tone changes whenever you talk to him and say, Hey,

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you\'re pushing a little hard, no?