This seems extremely optimistic to me. Can you provide a cite?
Now, I am fully aware that if we changed the allotment of water to different crops, it would make a hell of a difference. This article states that producing 1kg of beef uses more than 5 times the water needed to produce 1 kg of potatoes. But the world (well, at least the US of A) is not switching its diet from meat to vegetables anytime soon. I don’t know if there is a method by which the livestock producers in this country could maintain their level of production with, say, 50% of the water.
A very large amount of the nation’s fresh food is grown in California. Step one in solving the western water crisis is moving that agriculture to parts of the country with adequate water supplies. No place is as efficient as California and so the costs to the consumer will be higher. But careful planning may alleviate that to some extent. And the simplest way to do that is to charge a high enough price for the water. The farmers will scream, the consumers will be shocked and the farms will move. Once agriculture is in balance with the real available water supply a fair modern distribution agreement can be implemented. Right now California is counting on the courts to protect-and they may. The legal way around the law is with the law of supply and demand.
You don’t think climate change is speeding up this discussion? It surely would’ve come about at some point, but I’m pretty sure climate change is causing it brought up now. You are correct though…we are pretty far into “totally fucked” territory at this point. I, like you, doubt we can turn this ship in time to avoid the iceberg.
Problem is California has the right climate and soil for most commercial crops. If the right growing conditions existed elsewhere, then almonds would be grown there now. Ag is also scalable in CA because so many crops are close by and the growing season is long. It is a great place to grow food, its just that some crops are thirstier than others, and IMHO the export market yields massive privatized profits at public expense from some of those thirsty crops. This is where I think there is an opportunity to cut back a little without much impacting our food supply.
Looks around the valley where he resides> is that what it is? although we do say Mojave California is part of said valle but I don’t know if were small towns or not
although we do o have the same water problems as the rest of LA county but I think a lot of ours is recycled …also not that it matters I have an arrowhead water cooler cause our tap taste like its straight from the pool…
Ahem, California is mostly composed of very high mountains (the Sierras), a gigantic alluvial plain which originally had a water table just below the surface, and which supported a sea of tall grasses dotted with enormous live oak trees, a forested coast range which became chaparral as it continued south, and at the far southern end, a desert.
There are relatively few sand dunes in California.
There are two huge advantages to growing crops in a desert. One is that you get reliable sunlight, nearly every day. The other is that there aren’t a lot of wild plants harboring pests that attack your crops. It’s much easier to grow “organic” in California.
Still, it’s a desert. I was surprised to learn that much of my lettuce is grown in California. Really? Lettuce? In a desert?
Lettuce is grown in the Salinas Valley – NOT a desert. California is mostly NOT a desert, but is a Mediterranean climate with a long summer drought (all Mediterranean climate have dry summers but California’s is the driest). These climates exist on the west coasts of continents and have wet cool winters and dry summers. Besides the Mediterranean itself, and California, the others are in Chile, South Africa, and western Australia. They often verge into deserts at one or more edges but are NOT deserts. Stop saying California is a desert.
California is 1000 miles long, and has more climate zones than any other area of the US, by far. Most of them not desert.
But the Imperial Valley, which is the agricultural part of California irrigated by the Colorado River, is a desert. It even had sand dunes. And one of the crops grown there is lettuce.
Although you are correct that most of California is not desert, it is accurate to talk about deserts when the topic is Colorado River water.
It was eye opening to me when visiting N Colorado last summer. The beautiful Lake Loveland in Loveland but whose surface waters belong to Greeley. The concrete chutes coming out of the mountains dry until a flash flood warning fills them to the brink with water destined for other places.
The green lawns and fruit trees everywhere because one could surreptitiously tap into a river and suck up the water. Or pay through the nose irrigating with city water.
And in the communities of the western slope the unusual system of ditches and holding ponds, a co-op that one has to join to receive irrigation water for your lawn and fruit trees.
The rule that previously prevented one from harvesting rain water off their own roof! The rain belonged to those with water rights first. Mind blown but at least rain barrels are now allowed, but just two per household.
You say that, but Austin’s long had fairly restrictive water use policies, at least when compared to the other cities in the state. I suspect it’s more that the area and the watershed for the Colorado (TX) River are relatively arid when compared to the areas where Houston and Dallas get their water from.
Absolutely. That is the problem. California has several natural advantages for growing large amounts of fresh food. The problem is that it is beginning to appear that they have one insurmountable disadvantage. If there is no water, it doesn’t matter how good the climate, logistics or soil is. This is a national problem-we all eat and enjoy the low California prices-that will have to be solved. Either move the water (from somewhere) or move the farms. I am agnostic as to which solution is chosen. We have been dithering about the problem for a long time, it appears that the time for dithering is coming to an end.
As I mentioned above - put Blue Diamond out of business and that solves half the problem right there. California’s almond crop is almost entirely for export. It would have to be, since we produce 80% of the world’s supply and 100% of the domestic supply. Don’t tax water - tax almonds.
Alfalfa, the next most thirsty crop I don’t have a solution for.
You’re not far off. Was a Thursday.