> Food is a global market, water isn't. It's easier to import food than water since it's much lighter for the price. Exactly. These futures are a local market

> Food is a global market, water isn't. It's easier to import food than water since it's much lighter for the price. Exactly. These futures are a local market much closer to weather futures than fungible markets like crude oil or soybeans or even natural gas to a lesser degree, exactly because it's uneconomical to transport regular water over large distances. So these futures markets have little to tell us directly about anything other than local conditions in California. They allow local farmers to trade risk with other market participants such as speculators or the sellers of the water.