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> we know the cause is agriculture and blaming grass lawns and car washing can easily be disproven Agriculture is where your food comes from. Unless you're eat
by kolanos 4y ago
> we know the cause is agriculture and blaming grass lawns and car washing can easily be disproven
Agriculture is where your food comes from. Unless you're eating your lawn? 40% of the water going to food production is precisely where it should go. Mass starvation is bad.
- scruple 4y agoIt's frankly insulting that people still push this line of thought. No, we will not starve to death if California stops growing almonds and pistachios. We will it run out of livestock feed if we stop growing alfalfa and other hay grass in California that is then exported overseas.
- tzs 4y agoHow is alfalfa being exported relevant? Only 0.005% of the water used to grow alfalfa ends up in the alfalfa itself. Almost all of the water used for growing alfalfa ends up in the local atmosphere via either evaporation from the soil or transpiration from the plants. Before one can reasonably discuss the impact of alfalfa growing one needs to figure out what happens to that 99.995% of the water that ends up initially in the local atmosphere. What places does it end up? How long does it take to get there? How much of this process is a loop? I've not been able to find answers to those questions.
- scruple 4y agoMost of the alfalfa grown in California is in the San Joaquin Valley. Overdrafting is a well understood phenomenon at this point. No, there is not an efficient loop to be found here without significant investment in recharge infrastructure that we currently do not have.
- kolanos 4y ago> California produces over 13% of the nation's agricultural production value. California's top 20 crop and livestock commodities account for more than $25 billion in value. [0] How do you plan to replace the $25 billion a year in food California produces? And as for your alfalfa export claim... > Based on USDA data for 2021, only 3.9% of all U.S. hay produced and 6.4% of all alfalfa hay entered the export market. [1] [0]: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_File/10cafacts_v3.pdf https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_File/10cafacts_v3.pdf [1]: https://hayandforage.com/article-3825-year-end-hay-exports-set-new-records.html https://hayandforage.com/article-3825-year-end-hay-exports-s...
- scruple 4y agoShow me where I said we need to stop growing all crops in the state. I'll wait.
- kolanos 4y agoI was addressing your belittling of California's food production and its importance. > No, we will not starve to death if California stops growing almonds and pistachios. California is effectively the sole source of: almonds, olives, peaches, artichokes, dates, pomegranates, raisins, sweet rice, pistachios, plums and walnuts. [0] [0]: https://www.ocregister.com/2017/07/27/california-farms-produce-a-lot-of-food-but-what-and-how-much-might-surprise-you/ https://www.ocregister.com/2017/07/27/california-farms-produ...