A continued severe drought in California could cause food price inflation, as farmers in the San Joaquin Valley leave thousands of acres idle, sell cattle earlier and bulldoze hundreds of fruit and nut trees according to the Sacramento Bee. Governor

Jerry Brown officially declared a drought emergency last week, but state water managers say without heavy rains in the next few months, only about five percent of the water required to irrigate California's nearly 1 million acres of farmland will be available. The state is estimated to produce one-eighth of total US farming output.