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Ukranian wheat is a staple. Californian pistachios are a luxury. An entire continent with a shortage of California pistachios does not mean people starving in
by LeifCarrotson 4y ago
Ukranian wheat is a staple. Californian pistachios are a luxury.
An entire continent with a shortage of California pistachios does not mean people starving in the streets and the world economy imploding. It means a handful of really unhappy pistachio plantation owners and millions of people happily eating Georgia peanuts (only half of which are artificially irrigated, they get plenty of water from the sky) instead.
Unfortunately, the pistacho farmers are wealthy and connected, so they can shift the narrative to "turn off your expensive city water while you're brushing your teeth" while they draw more in an hour than years of toothbrushing would use.
- s0rce 4y agoBarring eliminating long standing (pre-statehood) water rights and the entire system (likely not to happen) they probably just need to pay these plantation owners not to grow stuff.
- LeifCarrotson 4y agoWhy bar that? If you're farming in a desert and using 2020s technology to destroy the ecosystem, the fact that 1800s governments, lacking any ability to accurately measure the health of underground aquifers, allowed you to use a windmill to pull a little water out of the ground is completely irrelevant.
- s0rce 4y agoBecause it doesn't seem like that is ever going to happen, I'm 100% for doing that.