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Housing and urban centers in general are a comparatively small part of society's water budget. Agriculture beats it by 4:1, and most agricultural use is very p

by ajross 4y ago

Housing and urban centers in general are a comparatively small part of society's water budget. Agriculture beats it by 4:1, and most agricultural use is very poorly optimized (water has historically been mostly free). It's sort of hilarious, but I think the libertarian answer here is the right one for California: remove zoning restrictions on housing to put as many people in the Bay Area as want to be there, and remove all the public subsidies and infrastructure spending in the central valley to force agriculture to pay true market rates for the scant water available.

cudgy 4y ago
True. Growing food in a desert is generally a bad idea and extremely wasteful of water resources, for example in an area like the desert landscapes of central California. Not so sure about unlimited building in cities as that has consequences similar to the unlimited agricultural policies mentioned. A better solution is to have general rules for development instead of the ad-hoc rules in many communities that slow down the process and allow for extended debate over every building project.
- nradov 4y ago
  California passed several laws in 2021 which set general rules for housing development, and limited the ability of local communities to set ad-hoc rules. https://www.natlawreview.com/article/three-new-california-laws-to-facilitate-housing-production https://www.natlawreview.com/article/three-new-california-la...
- TheCoelacanth 4y ago
  It's not even necessarily that they need to stop growing food there completely. Switching to less water-intensive crops and farming methods would go a long way. Of course, they aren't going to do that when they're getting water far below market price.
- Iwan-Zotow 4y ago
  > True. Growing food in a desert is generally a bad idea and extremely wasteful of water resources, for example in an area like the desert landscapes of central California. But people supposed to get food, all ~40mlns of Californians! Ok, lets stop doing it in the Central Valley. Where Cali food would come from? Tracked 2000miles from Lakes region?

by ajross 4y ago

cudgy 4y ago

True. Growing food in a desert is generally a bad idea and extremely wasteful of water resources, for example in an area like the desert landscapes of central California. Not so sure about unlimited building in cities as that has consequences similar to the unlimited agricultural policies mentioned. A better solution is to have general rules for development instead of the ad-hoc rules in many communities that slow down the process and allow for extended debate over every building project.

nradov 4y ago
California passed several laws in 2021 which set general rules for housing development, and limited the ability of local communities to set ad-hoc rules. https://www.natlawreview.com/article/three-new-california-laws-to-facilitate-housing-production https://www.natlawreview.com/article/three-new-california-la...
TheCoelacanth 4y ago
It's not even necessarily that they need to stop growing food there completely. Switching to less water-intensive crops and farming methods would go a long way. Of course, they aren't going to do that when they're getting water far below market price.
Iwan-Zotow 4y ago
> True. Growing food in a desert is generally a bad idea and extremely wasteful of water resources, for example in an area like the desert landscapes of central California. But people supposed to get food, all ~40mlns of Californians! Ok, lets stop doing it in the Central Valley. Where Cali food would come from? Tracked 2000miles from Lakes region?