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Higher water prices translate to higher food prices without replacement. The southwest has ideal growing conditions when irrigated. Replacement won’t be 1:1.
by lumost 4y ago
Higher water prices translate to higher food prices without replacement. The southwest has ideal growing conditions when irrigated. Replacement won’t be 1:1.
Changing the water prices in the southwest will hit consumers across the US.
- powerhour 4y ago> Replacement won’t be 1:1. What do you mean by this? We would surely produce more calories per gallon of water if we, say, swapped beef with chicken (or plants). I guess we might not replace beef with beef, but that wouldn't be a replacement, so that wouldn't make sense.
- czbond 4y agoI'm excited / interested in what replacement ("faux") meat will do for water savings.
- smallerfish 4y agoClosing your eyes to the cost doesn't mean that the cost isn't there. For example, maybe lettuce grown and sold from California can be bought at $2/head. If you were to truly factor in the misuse of water, maybe the cost should be $3. Maybe at $3, lettuce grown in Florida, Oregon, Vermont and Iowa is cost-competitive. A lot of maybes, sure, but the point is that if you were to charge for the water what the water actually should cost, then that cost actually gets built into the system, and the market can work. You can't have your cake and eat it - for a market system to work, you need to actually allow pricing to reflect the actual costs.