Posted on 03/20/2015 10:56:48 AM PDT by grundle
Almonds alone use about 10 percent of California’s total water supply each year. That’s nuts. But almonds are also the state’s most lucrative exported agricultural product, with California producing 80 percent of the world’s supply.
Alfalfa hay requires even more water, about 15 percent of the state’s supply. About 70 percent of alfalfa grown in California is used in dairies, and a good portion of the rest is exported to land-poor Asian countries like Japan. Yep, that’s right: In the middle of a drought, farmers are shipping fresh hay across the Pacific Ocean. The water that’s locked up in exported hay amounts to about 100 billion gallons per year—enough to supply 1 million families with drinking water for a year.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
You can’t. The water is protected by several international agreements. The Great Lakes States & Canada will never allow the removal of the water from the Great Lakes Water Shed.
You, in turn, probably produce something else which you sell at a profit. It is called capitalism.
It works pretty darn well until some government busybody involves themselves in deciding what is sustainable and what is a fair profit.
water that’s locked up in exported hay amounts to about 100 billion gallons per year
Someone never spent any time on a farm, or even driving past them. Hay is cut and dried in the sun for several days before it is bailed.
Not needed; just route the water from the sewage treatment plants back to the reservoirs instead of sending it into the ocean.
For your interest:
California Is Turning Back Into A Desert And There Are No Contingency Plans
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3268346/posts
Deport ALL illegals from California and the water consumption problem would be on its way to being partially solved. The legal green card holders would be shaking the nut trees and picking them up so that the rest of the unemployed construction folks could resume working for their proper wage.
Here in Corpus Christi this week I am watching a new complex go up on the other side of the back fence. Between the rat a tat tat of the nail guns their isn’t an English word being spoken. A concrete repair crew showed up here last week and they just finished pouring concrete yesterday afternoon. I go out to take the garbage to the dumpster and not a word of English. In fact, I was eyed warily. Again, doubtful any of them were legals.
There’s a drought here in Texas too and while we don’t use as much water here for crops as California does, several million deportees would make a difference on our local water restrictions. It’s a perfectly legitimate concern and would be addressed by a strong leader unafraid of the backlash.
Oh, come, come now. We can NOT let the Proglodytes go down the tubes! International agreements? Is that something like the Constitution of the United States? Was it negotiated In the UN? PFFT. You are not for the greater good.
I'm curious who you think built these enormous water projects. Half a dozen family farmers clubbing together?
Most of these farms wouldn't exist had the government not provided the water, at highly subsidized rates, BTW.
Given their total entanglement and crony relationship with government, it takes a lot of gall for farmers to complain about government.
I hate nuts.
I like walnuts because their shells clean my brass. But other than that, I could go without nuts for the rest of my life.
Could be, but what’s really subsidized in California is the lifestyle of the Grower class who live in their plantation homes, have lovely beach homes in Seascape and Pebble Beach, and a condo in Truckee.
And I’m in no need of any subsidy. Quite the contrary.
Give farmers a chance and they’ll figure out how to water their crops
I had four inches of water in my cellar a few weeks ago.
Anyone have an address in CA where I can send a barrel or two?
I’m not saying you need a subsidy. Sorry about that. What I am saying is we all benefit from the crops grown in California. If it’s subsidized, oh well. I’m more concerned of the subsidizing we do for the political class.
A lot of the other posts on this thread suggest desalination or transferring water from north to south CA.
Who but the government would do either of these?
About all individual farmers can do is drill deeper wells and chase the aquifer. But that’s a dwindling resource and by definition only a stopgap.
Large irrigation project, from the beginning of history, have almost always involved governmental action.
Anyone have an address in CA where I can send a barrel or two?
We had a flood here a few years ago. Five feet of water in my basement. I drove past a flooded farm field. The farmer had put up a sign, "Free water. Uhaul."
Technically 48% of water in California is set aside for the environment. That said the majority of that is the Sacramento River and north. 38% is Agriculture and the remaining percentage goes to home and business use.
My guess is the majority of that price increase was because of the drought in the beef producing areas. They will pay more there, so you pay more on the table.
Hotels?
Food?
Wow, tough choice.
Seriously? Strawberries picked by armies of squat labor, all in the country illegally?
You worried the farmers in Washington state who use machinery to do that will somehow go belly up?
The entire California boutique food industry is a make work construct designed to keep the campesinos of Mexico employed and the legacy growers in business without having to innovate as those in other states and countries have done.
Any research into food production automation was killed by Jerry Brown in the 1970s at the insistence of the UFW. Gotta keep La Raza employed and numerous, you know?
Power in numbers. Ask the VC.
My fault.
I thought the discussion about was Water, not Labor. I was not aware that machine picked strawberries required less water for growth than hand picked ones.
Amazing!
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