California is in its third year of a catastrophic drought.<br /> <br />That's not news, but what IS news is just how much the drought is COSTING the state.<br /> <br />A new report from the University of California estimates more than $2 BILLION dollars are at stake.<br /> <br />Plus thousands of jobs, as many as 17,000.<br /> <br />(SOUNDBITE) (English) KAREN ROSS, SECRETARY OF THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE, SAYING:<br /> <br />"There's no single action that we can take to betters survive drought in the future. It does take a portfolio approach that requires that Californians develop an ethic of conservation."<br /> <br />The drought has depleted the Sierra Nevada snow pack, which feeds water into the state's rivers and streams.<br /> <br />No water means farmers are forced to let some of their most valuable crops go fallow.<br /> <br />Sixty-percent of those fallowed crops -- corns, beans as well as dairy -- are dying in the San Joaquin Valley.<br /> <br />That's where 70 percent of the state's agricultural revenue
