USDA features Dr. Rich Brazil of Save the Potter Valley Project: "Leave us alone!"
“Why are you taking our water? Why are you destroying our homes and our farms and our ranches? We pay our taxes. We just want to work, we want to be left alone. We’re trying to feed America.”
In solidarity with a region set to lose its major water source, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins invited Dr. Rich Brazil, chair of Save the Potter Valley Project, to USDA headquarters in Washington, D.C. in Feburary for an event highlighting lawfare and government weaponization against agricultural producers.
At this event, Rollins announced the Farmer and Rancher Freedom Framework, a comprehensive plan to combat government weaponization against producers and to protect the nation’s farms and ranches.
Brazil spoke about how years of environmental lawsuits and a corrupt system have aligned to threaten water for farms and ranches in California.
In a video shared by USDA, Dr. Brazil explained that the dam system is vital to the region.
“Leave us alone,” he said. “Why are you taking our water? Why are you destroying our homes and our farms and our ranches? We pay our taxes. We just want to work, we want to be left alone. We’re trying to feed America.”
The USDA is choosing to highlight the impending water emergency taking shape in Northern California, where a state-regulated utility monopoly moves to take out a 100 year-old water system that supplies water to over 600,000 rural residents. Last summer, sudden water cuts ahead of dam removal hit Potter Valley farmers and ranchers in the middle of harvest season, foreshadowing a future without dams.