Nature, Labor and Community in California’s Imperial Valley

Alan Rudy

ISS 310: People and Environment

Spring 2002

Thursday, January 9

Imperial Valley and Salton Sea

Landsat Hydrophotography

Imperial County Farms and Average Farm Value

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1940 1945 1950 1954 1959 1964 1969 1974

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# of Farms Avg. Value: Land+Buildings

Farms and Farm Value, 1940-1972

1939 Map

My Problem: I'm interested in the connections between

environmental crises, labor struggles and rural development.

But, my research started with the 1991 Silver Leaf whitefly superpest outbreak.

What do I do? Start with evolution of the whitefly and seek

connections to labor processes and agricultural development patterns.

The Whitefly: Whitefly comes from intensive cultivation, and

serial ripening with great crop diversity.

The Imperial Valley produces > 100 crops with a 365-day a year growing season.

Crops are planted so that one field is harvested one week, another the next, and another the next – there are almost always several ripe, succulent, or young crops for pests to attack.

As such, extremely high pesticide usage has been the rule ever since the 1950s.

More Whitefly: Whitefly superpest unlike other pests

(more crop hosts, 5X repro rate).

Esp. bad for highly capitalized, very disciplined and intensive agricultural systems with

Massive landholdings, contract inputs-management-labor, Hoover Dam/All-American canal/intensive drainage system.

Landholdings Neither the 160-Acre nor the Residency

Limitation associated with the Irrigation Act of 1901 has been enforced in the Valley since the completion of the Hoover Dam, and All-American Canal.

Massive units of production. Not a single farmstead – everyone lives

in cities, across the border or on the coast.

Contracts – No Owner Operators Management Land Preparation Chemical Inputs Labor Processing Marketing

Water Infrastructures Irrigation – 1901 Flood/New-Alamo “Rivers”/Salton Sea – 1904-

1907 Dam/Canal – 1929-1939 Drainage – 1940s Limitations

1930s – against legal advice, unenforced 1970s – threatened, Supreme Court decision,

Congress rewrites Reclamation Law

Labor History Indigenous canal digging, land leveling Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hindu

succession/exclusion Mexican – exception to 20s immigration

laws Multiracial union drives, 1929-1934

Violently suppressed Bracero Program – 1941-1965 UFW – 1968-1982

Community History Mexicali/Calexico Holt/El Centro/Brawley

County/SPRR/IID Struggle IID – Swing + Johnson = Hoover Dam Dam/Canal: Saves ag, kills communities Maquiladoras, NAFTA, Prisons

“rejuvenate” IV cities “Right to Farm” ordinance

Environmental Problems Supersaline Salton Sea

5-10,000 migrating eared grebes die annually The Sea is a key locale for migratory

waterfowl Supersaline Irrigation Water – Mexico? Selenium saturated sediments Industrial/Sewage from Mexicali Massive/Devastating pest outbreaks Very low air quality

Conditions of Production I James O’Connor (1989): Natural Causes Sees three crisis tendencies.

Overproduction Crisis Fiscal Crisis Environmental Crises

Ecological Personal Communal

Conditions of Production II Overproduction crisis – too much stuff, too few

markets – common to economic cycles. Fiscal crisis – economic downturn:

business needs more public R&D, new efficient infrastructures, and to pay fewer taxes, BUT

people also need more support and protection and to pay lower taxes…

BUT THE STATE HAS FEWER RESOURCES serve business irk people? 1920s, 50s, 80s, 90s? serve people irk business? 1930s, 60s serve both deficit spending/debt? 1950s, 70s

Conditions of Production III Nature, people and communities are not

(re)produced like commodities Business often treats nature, workers and

communities as if they are disposable or depreciable commodities.

Pollution, exhaustion, and intensive use degrade the health of n, p, & c.

Unhealthy n, p, & c are less productive and also a source of social movements

Conditions of Production IV Environmental, labor/gender/etc., and

community-based social movements generally make demands on the state

The state, then, is always a key player in the relationship between nature and business, labor and business, and communities and business.

People, Environment and Sustainability

Ecological conditions are connected to peoples’ health and community well-being – often through the state/politics.

Sustainability, then, must be about environmental justice as well as the health of ecological communities