Earlier this year, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said California agriculture could disappear by the end of the century because of climate change. "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California," Steven Chu says. California is the top agricultural producer in the U.S., producing half of country's fruits, vegetables, and nuts.

The worst case scenario would be 90 percent of the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range in California, snowpack disappearing, according to Chu. The snowpack serves as a major source of water for California agriculture.

"I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen," he said. "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California."

The Central Valley is the top agricultural area in California, and is often called the "agricultural center of the world." The 500-mile long valley has suffered for three years from drought. In February, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state emergency because drought conditions. "California faces its third consecutive year of drought and we must prepare for the worst -- a fourth, fifth or even sixth year of drought," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

"We're going to have droughts. That's a fact of life. They may be worse in the future," state water chief Lester Snow said.

Last fall, a study by David Roland-Holst from the University of California-Berkeley, showed that climate change could cost California between $300 million and $3.9 billion. According to the study, this year alone the Central Valley could lose $2.2 billion due to the water crisis.

"Our report makes clear the most expensive thing we can do about climate change is nothing,"" Roland-Holst said. "This is not a Doomsday report . . . . If we make the right investments, we can avert much of the damage in any scenario."

Sections of the San Joaquin Valley's farms, located in the Central Valley, did not receive their usual water deliveries because of the drought and environmental concerns for the smelt, a small endangered fish. It has forced many farmers to let their fields go fallow, which in turn leaves farm workers unemployed. Up to 80,000 people could be left unemployed.

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California pointed out that the water crisis is "seriously impacting the San Joaquin Valley and its communities, which depend on agriculture for their economic survival."

In 2005 Congressional Research Service ranked the 20^th congressional district in the San Joaquin Valley dead last in a national scorecard that ranks the overall well being of 436 areas. The area in the San Joaquin Valley affected by the water crisis is in the 20^th district.

Global agricultural could suffer greatly because of climate change. A report ten years ago by the Manchester Metropolitan University predicted that climate change will cause food shortages "in some countries of the world." Areas that already experience drought "may become more severe."

Two years ago agricultural expert, Dr. Dennis Keeney pointed out that the past nine years had been among the 25 warmest on record. Global annual temperatures are about one degree Fahrenheit warmer than they were at the beginning of the 20^th century. According to Keeney, the higher temperatures mean that agriculture is in "jeopardy of changing in ways that we do not yet understand." In fact, Keeney believes that farming will be more affected by climate change than any other industry.

A recent study published in the U.S. journal Science found that there is a 90 percent change that by the end of the 21^st century, the coolest temperatures in the tropics during the crop growing season would be higher than what was recorded between 1900 and 2006.

"The stress on global food production from temperatures alone is going to be huge, and that doesn't take into account water supplies stressed by the higher temperatures," said David Battisti, at the University of Washington, who led the study.

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