For most people, the Westside of California's Central Valley consists of what you can see from your car window while speeding down Interstate 5. Fields of permanent crops and dirt can be seen for miles. Every once in a while, you might catch a glimpse of a person.
What cannot be seen from the highway are the small farm communities of the Westside that are dependent on the crops that grow around them. These crops are the main source of employment for residents who live in towns like Mendota and Five Points. It is said that the Central Valley feeds world with what is grown in its fertile ground, but without water, the farmland is not much more than a desert. In recent years farmers have suffered from the lack of water flowing from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta because of speculated environmental impact to fish in the delta.
In the third year of short water allocations and a down economy, farmers have left some of their land fallow in the Westlands Water District, thus eliminating jobs for farm laborers on the Westside. The town of Mendota, which has around 10,000 residents, has reached unemployment rates higher than 40 percent.
These photos document the impact of unemployment caused by lack of water from 2007 - 2010. Out of work laborers and their families rely on food giveaways to get by and sit idol on downtown sidewalks simply because there is nothing else to do. The adapt to the tough times and wait for the water to flow again, hoping that jobs will return.
While politicians, lawyers and judges focus on the potential environmental impact in the delta and its inhabitants, this essay focuses on the fallow fields of the Westside and the people who were somehow left out of the discussion.
Click here to view the images.
Photos by Joe Proudman ©joeproudman2010