5 ms·
Another potential concern is that it runs through some good farmland, which CA has some of the best of in the world. I would love to have an HSR along the coas
by shiny 10y ago
Another potential concern is that it runs through some good farmland, which CA has some of the best of in the world.
I would love to have an HSR along the coast however. When I was in Taiwan it was amazing being able to get to the bottom of the island in a couple hours.
- milesrout 10y ago>some good farmland, which CA has some of the best of in the world. Is that a joke? California is a terrible place to be farming. Farming in California is only viable because farmers are allowed unfettered access to water, depriving it from residents (who are told they should turn off the water in the shower while farmers are pouring untold millions of gallons on crops that could be grown somewhere actually suited to farming).
- hexane360 10y agoNot just residents, but also states around it, as well as Mexico.
- superbaconman 10y agoWine yo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_wine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_wine
- milesrout 10y ago80% of California's water is used by agriculture.
- WillPostForFood 10y agoThis is false. I don't blame you because it is often repeated. But agriculture only accounts for about 40% of California's water use. In an average year, about 39% of California's water consumption, or 34.1 million acre-feet, is used for agricultural purposes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_in_California#Uses_of_water https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_in_California#Uses_of_wa...
- doh 10y agoIt's actually not false. If you read the article you posted, you will see that half of the water is used for environmental uses. That means is not used by humans, but "let go". So if you sum the rest, agriculture does use 80% of the water used by humans.
- WillPostForFood 10y agoDirecting water to a tree to grow almonds, and directing it to a stream to support the delta smelt are both human directed usages. You can't just count the usages you don't like to make the number look big.
- doh 10y agoIf you're looking at it this way, that every single stream is managed, then yes, you're right. I rather think that we develop only the water sources that make the most sense and leave the rest be. This way we could talk about the incredible amounts of gold that is diluted in oceans that we could harvest "anytime" [0]. It's around 21x more than humans mined in the whole history. [0] http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/gold.html http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/gold.html
- joshfraser 10y agoAlso from that link: "Solely relying on these statewide volumes is controversial because they don't consider the fact that most of the volume of water used for environmental purposes includes flows down Wild and Scenic Rivers in the North Coast where there is no practical way to recover it for either agricultural or urban use because it lacks many connections to the statewide water supply system."
- djcapelis 10y agoFor the most part, that's a completely different part of the state.
- ghaff 10y agoBy volume (though certainly not by quality), I assume the Central Valley is the largest producer. Warmer temperatures mean more production but often low quality stuff.
- michaelvoz 10y agoNot nearly the same area of the state...
- WillPostForFood 10y agoYou think two buck chuck is made from grapes grown in ritzy Napa valley? Large majority of California wine comes from grapes grown in the central valley. * The Central Valley is California's largest wine region stretching for 300 miles (480 km) from the Sacramento Valley south to the San Joaquin Valley. This one region produces nearly 75% of all California wine grapes and includes many of California's bulk, box and jug wine producers like Gallo, Franzia and Bronco Wine Company.* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_wine#Wine_regions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_wine#Wine_regions
- gnopgnip 10y agoCalifornia is one of the best places in the world for many crops. Having little rain during the harvest season is a huge boon
- xapata 10y agoDepends on the crop.
- pm24601 10y agoNo its not a joke. Central Valley used to be a big marshy area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento%E2%80%93San_Joaquin_River_Delta#/media/File:Map_of_the_San_Joaquin,_Sacramento_and_Tulare_Valleys_1873.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento%E2%80%93San_Joaquin...
- ktRolster 10y agoIt still would be if it weren't for the levies. Especially right now.
- NickNerdy 10y agoFrom a nytimes article "the valley is the world’s largest patch of Class 1 soil, the best there is. The 25-degree (or so) temperature swing from day to night is an ideal growing range for plants. The sun shines nearly 300 days a year. The eastern half of the valley (and the western, to some extent) uses ice melt from the Sierra as its water source, which means it doesn’t have the same drought and flood problems as the Midwest. The winters are cool, which offers a whole different growing season for plants that cannot take the summer heat. There’s no snow."
- digitalzombie 10y agoTo be fair we make some of the best wine in the world. So there is some merit...
- gotthemwmds 10y agoObviously you've never read a Steinbeck book.
- rhino369 10y agoThe problem isn't that farming occurs, it's that some stupid crops are grown in California--like alfalfa. It uses a ton of water and it's not very profitable. But the state can grow a lot of crops that are worth the water usage. All that is needed is to price water with a market mechanism rather than first come, first serve free water.
- mmanfrin 10y agoThe amount of space railway needs is infinitesimally small compared the amount of arable land we have. This is not a concern.
- gozur88 10y agoWe have more good potential farmland in CA than we have water. I don't see the impact to agriculture as being very large if the water allotment can be transferred.