In California, the nation’s leading producer of fresh fruits and vegetables, the importance of water could hardly be overstated. And we certainly can’t ignore the obvious: California needs a water system growers can rely on.

This is where the California Farm Water Coalition (CFWC) comes in. Founded in 1989, in the midst of a six-year drought, the organization was formed to increase public awareness of agriculture’s efficient use of water and serve as a collective voice for California farmers and water users. At the helm of the coalition is Michelle Paul, CFWC Executive Director. While Paul considers herself an “inductee into the agriculture community,” she has spent years building a career at the intersection of communications, agriculture and water policy.

“I fell into the agriculture industry when I found myself working in support of state commodity group export programs,” said Paul. “It really was my first taste outside of my formal education at Fresno State.”

Graduating with a master’s degree in international affairs, Paul ultimately found a way to capitalize on her political acumen, spending a few years working in the Capitol. She later moved to AgWest Farm Credit (then known as Farm Credit West), where she supported member outreach programs and became increasingly engaged in the storytelling and advocacy work the organization used to support its members and the agriculture industry. She is also a graduate of the California Agricultural Leadership Program.

As she continued on her path of professional development, she had a yearning to get into the driver’s seat to have a greater impact on the industry at large. When longtime CFWC Executive Director Mike Wade announced his retirement, she saw an opportunity to step into that role and secured the position in November 2025.

According to Paul, “it’s been full speed ever since.”

That mix of communications experience and policy exposure now shapes how Paul approaches one of California agriculture’s most persistent challenges: making water issues understandable outside the industry. And in her view, water may be the most critical issue facing the state’s next administration.

Beyond “Not Enough Water”

The conversation around California water is often distilled into a simple question: Does the state have enough water?

According to Paul, the answer is considerably more complicated.

“We often think of water as simply a supply issue,” she said. “People say, ‘California doesn’t have enough water.’ But the conversation is much broader than that.”

Paul broke the state’s water situation into three interconnected components. The first is legal: who has the right to divert water and for what purpose. The second is operational: how that water is stored, moved and ultimately delivered. The third is physical supply: the water actually available in reservoirs, rivers and canals, snowpack and groundwater.

Paul said the current system inherently creates variability in the water allocations delivered to farmers, making it incredibly challenging, if not impossible, for growers to plan and continue operating a business under these conditions.

“We have increasing climate volatility, or weather whiplash, where the swings in precipitation and snowpack from year to year are increasing,” Paul said. “And that makes it very difficult to look at historical averages, which has typically been the way in which water operators, and the regulations, have allocated water.”

The result is a system in which multiple pressures can compound one another, and Paul emphasized the urgency in building a more reliable water system. The overlapping legal, operational and supply constraints are exactly what producers contend with when allocation decisions arrive after planting, budgeting and harvest operations are already underway.

Paul cited a recent example: In August, Central Valley Project south-of-delta contractors received a 3 percent increase in water allocation, bringing final delivery from 25 percent to 28 percent of their contract total. While additional water is valuable, the timing presented a challenge for growers who were already preparing for or actively harvesting their crops.

“It’s extremely difficult to account for and plan ways to maximize that water use when you don’t get that information until very, very late in the year,” said Paul.

Closing the Water Reliability Gap

The need for more reliable surface water is also closely tied to California’s efforts to manage groundwater, which Paul said has usually been utilized to fill in the gap as surface water deliveries have become more constrained.

But that safety net is tightening too, as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) limits pumping to protect aquifers and prevent subsidence. The result is a narrowing set of choices at the very moment growers need flexibility most.

The effects of SGMA implementation also extend beyond the farm itself. When less land can be farmed, workers can see reduced hours, and rural communities can lose economic activity, tax revenue and investment.

“Agriculture is a big engine that keeps them going,” Paul said of rural communities. “So if you remove that tax base and the amount of investment that comes into these rural, often socioeconomically challenged areas of the state, you have some real significant impacts on the economy that are very challenging to mitigate.”

Paul emphasized that growers are already taking significant steps to use water more efficiently. Between 1980 and 2015, farm production value increased approximately 38 percent while agricultural water use declined 14 percent, which she attributed to improvements in irrigation and farm management.

“Growers are more efficient with their water today than ever before,” she said. “On-farm growers are leaning hard into technology with soil moisture, using automated irrigation systems and looking to more efficient practices.”

But efficiency alone cannot close the gap.

“We can’t just conserve our way out of the water supply gap,” Paul said. “The gap is too big.”

The challenge now is implementing groundwater regulations that protect the resource while allowing growers and the communities that depend on agriculture to remain viable.

“SGMA needs to be implemented in a way that allows growers to survive and care for their community and their workers, in a really thoughtful and achievable way,” Paul said.

Infrastructure, Technology and the Path Forward

As groundwater pumping becomes increasingly constrained, Paul sees investing in increased storage capacity and surface water conveyance as two of the most important areas for policymakers to address.

Most of California’s major water storage infrastructure was built decades ago, when the state had half the population it does today, and Paul said, “We just haven’t kept up with it.”

While the solution sounds simple enough—modernize water infrastructure—she said the path forward is challenging from a regulatory and cost perspective. “And infrastructure projects that are most viable take a really long time before the shovel hits the ground,” she added.

When a project gets approved or begins to move forward, it is often met with legal pushback, which further delays any solution being implemented, including the long-discussed proposal to raise Shasta Dam.

Since contending with the politics surrounding water can take years, Paul thinks increased use of modern technology could be an answer for moving forward and in the right direction with how California manages and moves water. This includes greater investment in forecasting technology, reservoir operations, conveyance infrastructure and groundwater recharge.

“We’ve got to use updated technology, like using aerial devices for snow forecasts, to understand what the snowpack looks like in the high Sierras so that our water managers can better deliver water more efficiently, more effectively,” she said.

She also pointed to Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO) as one example of how improved forecasting could help guide when and how water is released from reservoirs, adding that expediting environmental permitting would allow the state to take better care of its water resources in a more timely way.

Paul also sees opportunities beyond traditional surface storage. She explained how water districts are exploring groundwater recharge, recycled water projects and urban-ag partnerships, efforts she said are reflected in the state’s work toward SB 72 and its goal of identifying an additional 9 million acre-feet of new water supplies.

“I’m hopeful that focus on leveraging better data and technology to prioritize identifying new water supplies will survive the change in administration,” she said. “We need California’s top office to prioritize improving our water situation.”

Agriculture is Part of the Water Solution

For CFWC, policy debates are also communications challenges: how to help people see the connection between water decisions, food production and rural economies.

Much of CFWC’s work, Paul said, centers on helping policymakers and the public better understand what water means beyond the farm gate. The coalition uses media outreach, editorials, letters to the editor and interviews with non-industry publications to communicate the realities growers face, while also bringing media and influencers to farms to see issues firsthand.

“We’re really an educational organization,” Paul said. “The more aware people are of the significance of these issues, the better.”

That education is particularly important when it comes to public perceptions of agricultural water use.

“I think there’s a real disconnect with policymakers and voters, that water stays on the farm. Water doesn’t stay on the farm—it leaves the farm in the form of the product that goes to market,” Paul said. “All food takes water to grow. The question is where and how it’s grown.”

Looking ahead, Paul said California’s water policy needs to become faster, more transparent and more integrated. Decisions need to account for how policies affect agriculture, communities and the environment rather than addressing individual issues in isolation.

“There is a tendency to approach water supplies in a very siloed manner,” she said. “That’s not a long-term solution.”

Despite the challenges, Paul sees an opportunity to move toward more practical water solutions, particularly through new water supplies, improved technology and groundwater recharge. She noted that agricultural lands make up approximately 70 percent of groundwater recharge lands south of the Delta, another indication that agriculture can play an important role in addressing the state’s water challenges.

Ultimately, she said, communicating that role to the public will be critical.

“We’ve got to get out there and share success stories,” Paul said. “We need to share our story with the public because they are the ones who elect the policymakers. We need to help them understand that we’re part of the solution, not the problem.”