14 ms·

The problem is that California is the breadbasket for a ton of US goods. You're right, we need to stop but it's gonna be painful for a lot of industries.

throwaway894345 5y ago
What are the major agricultural commodities for which California is the breadbasket, and how many of those commodities could be sustainably grown elsewhere in the US and/or imported from abroad? Besides maybe almonds (which can presumably be easily imported), nothing springs to mind as predominately californian.
- jeffbee 5y ago
  California totally dominates the fruit market. Georgia might call itself the Peach State but California produces 20 times more peaches. California produces 90% of the nation's grapes and twenty times more wine than the second-place state. It's not necessarily that you couldn't grow these elsewhere, but it is a path-dependent process by which government subsidies have pushed all this production to California and killed the industries elsewhere. Changing this so fruits and vegetables are widely produced in every state would involve an abrupt discontinuity that entrenched California growers are sure to oppose.
  - hindsightbias 5y ago
    As long as the other states’ diet can be 100% corn based, they’ll be fine.
  - throwaway894345 5y ago
    Interesting. This seems believable. Supply chains don’t turn on a dime and unsustainable farmers will always support the unsustainable practices on which they depend, but we should start making moves in the right direction now. > Changing this so fruits and vegetables are widely produced in every state This isn’t the requirement. The requirement is that we source sustainably grown food. That can come from Mexico or the lusher regions of the US or wherever. I don’t think we need to grow oranges and lemons in Alaska or corn in Hawaii, we just need to be able to get sustainably-grown food to those places.
  - xeromal 5y ago
    Explained it better than I could!

throwaway894345 5y ago

What are the major agricultural commodities for which California is the breadbasket, and how many of those commodities could be sustainably grown elsewhere in the US and/or imported from abroad? Besides maybe almonds (which can presumably be easily imported), nothing springs to mind as predominately californian.

jeffbee 5y ago
California totally dominates the fruit market. Georgia might call itself the Peach State but California produces 20 times more peaches. California produces 90% of the nation's grapes and twenty times more wine than the second-place state. It's not necessarily that you couldn't grow these elsewhere, but it is a path-dependent process by which government subsidies have pushed all this production to California and killed the industries elsewhere. Changing this so fruits and vegetables are widely produced in every state would involve an abrupt discontinuity that entrenched California growers are sure to oppose.
- hindsightbias 5y ago
  As long as the other states’ diet can be 100% corn based, they’ll be fine.
- throwaway894345 5y ago
  Interesting. This seems believable. Supply chains don’t turn on a dime and unsustainable farmers will always support the unsustainable practices on which they depend, but we should start making moves in the right direction now. > Changing this so fruits and vegetables are widely produced in every state This isn’t the requirement. The requirement is that we source sustainably grown food. That can come from Mexico or the lusher regions of the US or wherever. I don’t think we need to grow oranges and lemons in Alaska or corn in Hawaii, we just need to be able to get sustainably-grown food to those places.
- xeromal 5y ago
  Explained it better than I could!