From a strictly utilitarian perspective, it may not be worth the effort to support agriculture. That really depends on the economic impact of the other sources

From a strictly utilitarian perspective, it may not be worth the effort to support agriculture. That really depends on the economic impact of the other sources of water use, most of which, 50% of total use, is for "environmental" purposes that do not directly impact GDP in the same way as agriculture. [0] I'm not saying Environmental use is less important: I'm saying that a utilitarian GDP focused policy on water use is probably not the best metric to use: There's simply too little other water-reliant commerce in CA to use GDP as a yardstick here. That just leaves balancing 40% use by agriculture against 50% use for environmental purposes. [0] https://www.ppic.org/publication/water-use-in-california/ https://www.ppic.org/publication/water-use-in-california/