Water management is hardly progressive in California these days. Photo: roam and shoot/Flickr CC.
If one more Californian tells me how “progressive” California is, I am going to scream.
“Progressivism” is the term applied to a variety of responses to the economic and social problems that were introduced to America by industrialization. It began as a social movement and grew into a political one. Early Progressives rejected Social Darwinism, believing that the problems society faced — such as poverty, violence, greed, racism and class warfare — could best be addressed by providing a good education and efficient, safe workplace and protecting the environment.
As the ideology developed, it came to represent four core values: Progressives have a two-part definition of freedom: “freedom from” and “freedom to.”
First, they believe that all people should have freedom from undue interference by governments and others in carrying out their private affairs and personal beliefs. This includes the rights to freedom of speech, association, and religion as well as the freedom to control one’s own bodies and personal lives.
Second, they believe that all people should have the freedom to lead a fulfilling and secure life supported by the basic foundations of economic security and opportunity. This includes physical protections against bodily harm as well as adequate income, economic protections, health care and education, and other social provisions.
Complementing their commitment to human freedom is their belief in opportunity. Like freedom, the concept of opportunity has two components: one focuses on political equality and the other on economic and social arrangements that enhance people’s lives.
Along with freedom and opportunity comes responsibility – personal responsibility and the responsibility we have to each other and to the common good.
Rounding out these political values is the basic progressive value of cooperation. Cooperation is the foundation of the most important social institutions including families, communities, and civic and/or faith groups. Freedom without cooperation leads to a divided society that cannot work together to achieve common goals and improve the lives of all.
Let’s examine a number of critical issues on the table in California in light of these four core values:
Water Management
California is the only western state that lacks adequate groundwater regulation. Groundwater is a huge piece of California’s water supply, making up approximately 40% of the state’s water demands in an average year and up to 60% or more during droughts, according to the Department of Water Resources.
“In the absence of governance, it’s a pumping arms race,” said Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board. “He with the biggest pump or deepest straw wins.”
Groundwater and surface water – rivers, lakes, streams -a re part of the same hydrological system. Excessive groundwater pumping can overdraft aquifers, emptying them faster than natural systems can replenish them; dry up nearby wells; allow saltwater intrusion; and draw down surface water supplies. Taking so much water out of the soil can cause the dirt to compact and the land to sink, an action called subsidence.
For decades, California’s voluntary Groundwater Management Plans have effectively failed to protect the people and ecosystems that depend upon water. Too many entities are siphoning off water from our extremely limited resources, resulting in declining groundwater levels, sinking of land, and drying of streams. Without integrated groundwater and surface water management, California’s water users and the environment will face broad challenges accessing water supplies in future years.
Even though California has recently enacted legislation for a preliminary groundwater policy, it is too little, too late.
An exemption in these newly drafted regulations could give, for example, the multinational corporation Crystal Geyser continued access to unlimited water from any community’s underground supply in the middle of a drought. This is currently being fast-tracked in Mount Shasta, California because Mount Shasta’s groundwater supply is considered to be a “volcanic basin,” not an “alluvial basin” – a geologic distinction that carries significant consequences under a set of new water use laws.
The prospects of a community without an adequate municipal water supply is in direct contrast to the core value for citizens to have the freedom to lead a fulfilling and secure life.
Raw Milk Regulation
The California Home Dairy Farm Raw Milk Safety Act (AB 2505) of 2014 – also known as the “Farm to Fridge” bill – would have permitted a home dairy farm to share, exchange or engage in the direct sale of raw milk that is in excess of the consumption needs of the home dairy farm. The milk would have to be obtained from healthy, lactating animals kept and fed on the premises of home dairy farm, while meeting a list of health and safety requirements. Unfortunately, the bill didn’t make it out of the general assembly Committee on Agriculture in April of 2014.
While numerous other states allow on-farm sales of raw milk and cow-share agreements, California only allows the sale of raw milk in retail stores. This, of course, gives exclusivity to corporate producers, while discriminating against small, local and cooperative dairies.
Here we bump into one of the key distinctions between Progressivism and neo-liberalism, a distinction that needs to be made clear.
Neo-liberalism is an approach to economics and social conditions in which control of economic factors is shifted from the public sector to the private sector. The main points of neo-liberalism include:
- The rule of the market
- Cutting expenditure for social services (like health care and education)
- Deregulation
- Privatization and
- Eliminating the concept of the public good or community.
What we have seen with the issues of water and raw milk are indicative of California’s neo-liberalism
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