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Water restrictions should be applied to the agriculture sector as well, if it was up to me I would put a quota on each supplier for how much water they can pull

Water restrictions should be applied to the agriculture sector as well, if it was up to me I would put a quota on each supplier for how much water they can pull per year.

s1artibartfast 4y ago
Would you pay them for their water?
- caymanjim 4y ago
  It's not their water. It's collectively our water. And they don't pay market rates for it. Agriculture costs are incredibly complex. The true cost of food is socialized, in the form of free/cheap land and water, subsidies, tax breaks, and fixed prices. I don't want to pay the true dollar price for food any more than the next person. I recognize that there's a societal benefit in socializing/externalizing the cost of food production. That shouldn't stop us from acknowledging the true cost and trying to fix it. If we're looking to conserve water, the very first place we should be looking is agriculture. Maybe we shouldn't be growing rainforest crops in the desert. Maybe we shouldn't be draining our reservoirs and aquifers for crops that are exported. Maybe agribusinesses making record profits should feel the pain of higher water costs before we tell people they can't take a shower.
  - s1artibartfast 4y ago
    It almost always is "their" water. California was founded in 1850 with private water rights, where individuals owned the water, like the surface land or gold and oil under their property. The fact that people now wish that the water was collectively owned by the state, does not make it so. If people want water to be collectively owned, they need to collectively purchase it and buy out the farmers. In the past, cities did just that. Like in the California water wars when LA went to the owens valley and set up shell companies pretending to be farmers and used them to purchase all the private rights, then turned the area into a barren wasteland. [1] In some instances where farmers are not using their own water, they have contracts with the state to provide X gallons at Y prices. If the state wishes to break those contracts, they need to pay for breach of contract. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_water_wars#Obtaining_water_rights_1902%E2%80%931907 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_water_wars#Obtainin...

Water restrictions should be applied to the agriculture sector as well, if it was up to me I would put a quota on each supplier for how much water they can pull per year.

s1artibartfast 4y ago

Would you pay them for their water?

caymanjim 4y ago
It's not their water. It's collectively our water. And they don't pay market rates for it. Agriculture costs are incredibly complex. The true cost of food is socialized, in the form of free/cheap land and water, subsidies, tax breaks, and fixed prices. I don't want to pay the true dollar price for food any more than the next person. I recognize that there's a societal benefit in socializing/externalizing the cost of food production. That shouldn't stop us from acknowledging the true cost and trying to fix it. If we're looking to conserve water, the very first place we should be looking is agriculture. Maybe we shouldn't be growing rainforest crops in the desert. Maybe we shouldn't be draining our reservoirs and aquifers for crops that are exported. Maybe agribusinesses making record profits should feel the pain of higher water costs before we tell people they can't take a shower.
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  It almost always is "their" water. California was founded in 1850 with private water rights, where individuals owned the water, like the surface land or gold and oil under their property. The fact that people now wish that the water was collectively owned by the state, does not make it so. If people want water to be collectively owned, they need to collectively purchase it and buy out the farmers. In the past, cities did just that. Like in the California water wars when LA went to the owens valley and set up shell companies pretending to be farmers and used them to purchase all the private rights, then turned the area into a barren wasteland. [1] In some instances where farmers are not using their own water, they have contracts with the state to provide X gallons at Y prices. If the state wishes to break those contracts, they need to pay for breach of contract. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_water_wars#Obtaining_water_rights_1902%E2%80%931907 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_water_wars#Obtainin...