2 ms·
Switching from flood based irrigation to spot watering. Selecting different crops than cotton for mattresses and pistachios or alfalfa and hay used for export.
by asdff 4y ago
Switching from flood based irrigation to spot watering. Selecting different crops than cotton for mattresses and pistachios or alfalfa and hay used for export. Farmers in the West use a lot of water because they can due to their water rights agreement, then they say "given this water allocation, what crop will maximize my return on my dollar" and they end up doing stuff like growing pistachios as a result because that's where the incentives have pushed them. Adjust the incentives and the crop choices and practices in the west will change. We don't need the cotton fit for mattresses or $10 bags of pistacios to feed us. The midwest alone produces plenty enough biomass for this country. Much of it there as well is exported elsewhere for individualized profit.
- Spooky23 4y agoIt puts the whole country at risk. Because the desert has almost a perpetual growing season, everywhere else is out of business or at least sustainable business.
- asdff 4y agoGrowing perpetually in a greenhouse setting is probably vastly more efficient than out in the desert where you are subject to constant losses to evaporation
- UncleEntity 4y ago> "given this water allocation, what crop will maximize my return on my dollar" It has traditionally been "given this water allocation, if I don’t use it I will lose it so what thirsty crop can I grow to keep it" so they grow alfalfa and cotton in the desert. Though, apparently, this has been changed recently to conserve water for the golf courses in the desert.