Comments made by environmental representative Lloyd Carter following a Fresno water forum last Wednesday were inflammatory and insensitive as he characterized children of farm workers as drug dealers and gang members.  His attempt to later apologize for his comments was half-hearted and rang hollow in the ears of the people who work to provide food for families throughout California and the world. 

His subsequent resignation from the board of directors of the California Water Impact Network does not lessen the concern among California's working families about environmental elitism and its effect on jobs.
 
Speakers at a rally at Fresno City Hall responding to Carter's comments were outraged at his apparent bias and lack of sensitivity.  It was clear to many of them that the environmental community has a hidden agenda to diminish agriculture in the Valley even at the expense of tens of thousands of farm-related jobs.

The issue was important enough to raise the interest of three San Joaquin Valley congressmen; Devin Nunes (D-Visalia), George Radanovich (R-Mariposa) and Jim Costa (D-Fresno).  All three provided statements condemning Carter's comments and expressing support for the Valley's agriculture industry and the people who make it work.

A spokeswoman for Radanovich stated that Carter's negative tone represented an attack by individuals "who prioritize fish over people."
 
Carter's comments came on the heels of a comment by Natural Resources Defense Council attorney Barry Nelson who insisted that ‘water needs to be managed first for the needs of fish, and second for the needs of people' at last month's International Sportsman Exposition in Sacramento.

They don't seem to care who gets hurt as they pursue their environmental agenda and now it seems that they don't care that the public knows about it.
 
Both of these comments clearly demonstrate the lack of concern by these environmental representatives for the people of our state.  It is these types of comments that threaten a water supply needed by all Californians.

Are environmentalists feeling emboldened by a string of recent regulatory and courtroom victories?  It may seem so and it serves to put California's farm water users and the people who depend on agriculture to feed their families on notice:  "You are not important to the future of our state."

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Mike Wade, Executive Director
California Farm Water Coalition