On water, Big Ag should ante up, too

Sacramento Bee ^ | 04/04/2015

[artichokegrower]

As the rest of California comes to grips with the state’s historic new water mandates, there’s an elephant in the room. And it’s wearing a farmer’s hat

[Thumper1960]

As long as Kalifornia elects Moonbeam, Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer, Waxman type “representatives” who use their power for the antiAmerican cause, Kalifornia is destined to go down the crapper.

[rottndog]

Used to drive between NorCal and Socal on the I-5 through the SJ Valley many times....even many years ago, it always irked me how wasteful overhead sprinklers were in a very hot and arid environment....a very high percentage of the water evaporated in the sprinkler mist before it ever irrigated anything. Maybe if they did this at night, rather during the heat of the day, it could be less wasteful...

But still, compared to drip irrigation, or some kind of underground watering system, that would still be quite wasteful. Nothing against farmers, but it is long past time to modernize irrigation practices. They should have been doing this all along. A little at a time, it would take many years, but in the long run they would be using far less water for the same crop production.

[ansel12]

Sure, states do that, and California is doing it in spades, but it will still exist.

[zeugma]

Yup. Farmers use a lot of water. However, there is really no comparison to a farmer watering a crop, and some bozo who demands a lush, green lawn. I'd be surprised if the vast majority of residential water use wasn't just wasted on such stupidity.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Israel did just that, and they made their desert bloom. But again they had more respect for their land, they didn’t see it as just a big money pot to exploit and then go dashing away.

[Myrddin]

If you're going to cut the water to the ag users, you also need to expel the illegal alien farm workers who aren't needed to harvest crops that aren't going to be grown.

[central_va]

f you're going to cut the water to the ag users, you also need to expel the illegal alien farm workers who aren't needed to harvest crops that aren't going to be grown.

Really, maybe then the rest of the USA can get back into the vegetable game before the California/Illegal Alien Mafia took over.

[Salgak]

That assumes evidence not in fact: to wit, that Californians ARE a Civilized people (evil grin)

[Mastador1]

What about all the water being sent to the sea to maintain a worthless little fish, now that there is the biggest elephant in the room. Hammering agriculture which feeds the nation is a favorite of the gaia worshippers.

[Dalberg-Acton]

“Since our state fish is the Delta Smelt nothing will change”

Made me think of “He who smelt it, dealt it”.

[Thumper1960]

I don’t expect Kalifornia to disperse into nothingness. Just sink further into chaos and misery.

[ansel12]

It will sure do that, and they will still be producing a lot of agriculture.

[trebb]

Unless you have native grasses that don’t require watering, get rid of your lawn before you start putting food-producers out of business...unless you like eating your crop of useless grass.

Yep - we will soon see the "happy cows" commercials espousing the new "powdered cheese" - just add water.....

[justlurking]

Do the math: 40% of 18% is 4.5%.

7.2%, still a small number.

Auuugh! For some reason I wrote 40%, then realized that the governor's order was for a 25% reduction. I did the correct calculation, but didn't correct the 40% to 25%.