In the fight over the future of California's water resources, San Joaquin Valley agribusiness interests have long tried to reduce the struggle to a simple, but false, comparison between fish and people. Now, with federal biologists documenting the decline of the salmon and suggesting a menu of possible fixes, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined this Big Farm chorus.

"This federal biological opinion puts fish above the needs of millions of Californians and the health and security of the world's eighth largest economy," Schwarzenegger said June 4.

The governor should know better. Certainly, his secretary of Natural Resources, Mike Chrisman, and director of Water Resources, Lester Snow, do.

Apparently the governor thinks growing water-thirsty alfalfa and taxpayer-supported cotton in the San Joaquin Valley is more important than salmon – or people. But the fishermen, communities, and their residents and business owners up and down the California coast which depended on the once-prolific salmon runs are people, too. They just don't have the voice or political clout and millions of dollars for politicians' campaigns and public relations firms that agribusiness can employ to get its message out.

The recent report from biologists at the National Marine Fisheries Service suggested a 5 percent to 7 percent reduction in water deliveries to San Joaquin Valley agriculture under certain conditions. That would hardly be the calamity that the governor would have us believe.

A far more responsible response to the biological opinion came in a statement from Donald Glaser, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's regional director: "We have to just find better ways to make efficient use of the water we have," he said.

That presents the governor with a great opportunity, if only he is willing to first recognize, then embrace it.

Namely, a recognition that fish are long overdue to be placed on equal footing with agriculture. And they certainly should be given a higher status than the thousands of acres of the San Joaquin Valley now devoted to tax-supported cotton, water-wasting alfalfa, speculative wine grapes and almonds for export. More than two-thirds of almonds grown here are sent overseas.

The dirty but not-so-little secret of San Joaquin Valley agriculture is that a great deal of it has nothing to do with putting food on the tables of Americans and more to do with propping up water-wasteful, welfare-farming operations that would not exist except for direct and indirect taxpayer support.

The collapse of the salmon run correlates perfectly with an increase in Delta diversions to record levels to water those crops. Drivers heading south on Interstate 5 pass field after field of newly planted grape vines, fruit and nut trees stretching to the horizon. Nine hundred thousand acres of the San Joaquin Valley was devoted to cotton in 2008, an increase over 2007 acreage even though California was in a drought. But fewer than 70,000 salmon returned to the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system last fall, more than a 90 percent decline from the peak of 800,000 recorded since records started being kept in 1967.

A new public awareness coupled with a shift in the governor's approach to water leadership would make available a substantial quantity of water to meet California's water needs – more than would have been provided by an Auburn dam. And one that doesn't require the billions of dollars, and unpredictable, but potentially catastrophic environmental risk associated with building a huge concrete-lined channel bypassing the Delta.

San Joaquin Valley interests would like to gut the state's environmental regulations, supposedly to mitigate economic impact to communities. But by that logic, the hydraulic gold mining popular in the late 1800s would still be scouring Sierra hillsides to prop up once-booming foothill mining communities like Gold Run and Dutch Flat.

The damage being done by irrigation practices in the San Joaquin Valley may be less visible than was the destruction caused by hydraulic mining. But it is every bit as damaging. Water is denied to more valuable uses. Land and waterways are poisoned by a witches' brew of irrigation drainage water laden with pesticides, nutrients and leached salts.

Perhaps even more fundamental is the compelling evidence compiled by Jeffrey Michael, director of the Business Forecasting Center and associate professor of the University of the Pacific, disproving agribusiness contentions that the San Joaquin Valley's high unemployment levels are due to a "regulatory drought." His numbers show that farm employment has grown faster than any other sector of the economy during the past year, and the number of farm jobs has been climbing throughout three-year drought. In Fresno County, farm payrolls grew by 3.2 percent in the 12 months that ended in April, while private, nonfarm payrolls shrank by 3.4 percent.

But some good may yet come from the real drought if there were a shift in San Joaquin Valley farming practices away from tax-supported, water-thirsty and speculative crops, either through legislation or by removing financial props. That could free up more than 200,000 acre-feet – the average annual yield once proposed for the Auburn dam – for more beneficial uses such as domestic and industrial uses, and yes, for fisheries dependent on a healthy Delta.

Of course, that's a big "if" – dependent on a newfound public awareness of the distinction between farming and "farming." With the natural drought and the ongoing litigation over the future of the Delta, the public is paying increased attention to the fight over California's water supply. It is the perfect "teachable moment." Schwarzenegger should take advantage of that opportunity to begin a reasoned and informed discussion of the issues and alternatives, not use it to further inflame passions that already are driven by ignorance.

Jim Jones is past president of the Save the American River Association.