FRUIT and vegetable farmers in California, USA, are experiencing one of the driest seasons of the century, not because of paltry rains but due to a shortsighted official policy. A new ruling has reined back billions of gallons of water in rivers and streams to protect the dwindling supply of winter-run salmon and other fish, which have been ravaged by the Central Valley water projects. As a result, the farmers are receiving only a fraction of the water they normally receive from California's mountain reservoirs. "This new drought is an environmental drought...not a Mother Nature drought," grumbles Jim McLeod, an apricot and walnut grower in California.