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They stop giving us water, we stop giving them food. Agriculture is 2% of the state GDP, 20% of the US food supply, and 80% of state water use.
by ohwello 10y ago
They stop giving us water, we stop giving them food. Agriculture is 2% of the state GDP, 20% of the US food supply, and 80% of state water use.
- Turing_Machine 10y ago20% in terms of dollars, perhaps. Not in terms of calories. The rest of the US could live just fine without out-of-season artichokes or whatever. Water is rather more important. You can live a long time on a plain diet (especially if you have vitamins available). Without the water, things in California would get very, very ugly, very, very quickly. ] Also: what are you planning to do if (or maybe "when" would be better) Mexico decides that it wants to take back its former territory (i.e., all of California)?
- ohwello 10y agoEven in drought, California has a lot of water. Imported water is only necessary so long as we irrigate the central valley. We wouldn't need it just for residential use. I think an independent California would have a good relationship with Mexico. Though I'm interested in why you think we wouldn't.
- dllthomas 10y agoDesirable land, no longer defended by the US military, and a fair number of their citizens here. I'm not sure I agree that it'd happen, but I can see some reasons.
- mjfl 10y agoOh no, the US will starve relying on the enormous strip of super fertile land between Texas and Idaho.
- ohwello 10y agoPoint is, the US needs to consume the food more than we need to grow it. The water is not that great a threat.
- DamnYuppie 10y agoActually if California stopped producing food we would still be fine. Most of what is produced is fruits. Most likely the US could halt 1/2 of its food production and still have plenty of food. We have no shortage of arable land, we have a greater shortage of people actually wanting to be farmers/ranchers :(