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A point probably worth making, but article is aware enough to consider it already: With all of this, Gary Saiter doesn't care if the farm is owned by a company

by nkurz 4y ago

A point probably worth making, but article is aware enough to consider it already: With all of this, Gary Saiter doesn't care if the farm is owned by a company overseas. The way he sees it, it doesn't make much of a difference who owns the farm; he just wishes they were better neighbors. "I am kind of ambivalent about the Saudis," Saiter said. "You can't control where people sell stuff, and it's going to go somewhere." "I just don't like the crops they're growing and the water they're pumping," he added.

ianai 4y ago
I’m pointing out the editorializing implicit in the framing. Apparently groundwater is used for crops all throughout Mexico and the southwest. I definitely wish it weren’t the case and instead a national water grid like how we have national power.
- me_again 4y ago
  Interestingly, the US doesn't have a true national power grid. https://www.epa.gov/green-power-markets/us-grid-regions https://www.epa.gov/green-power-markets/us-grid-regions The practical difficulty of transporting large amounts of water long distances is even worse than electricity, so I don't think it'll ever be easy to say "Minnesota has a water surplus this year, let's just adjust the pipes to send it to Nevada".
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  > a national water grid Awful idea. Why should the wet parts of the country pump their water into deserts where people shouldn't be living/working in the first place? If people want to live in deserts, let them find their own water. No other region should be obliged to supplement their unsustainable desert lifestyle. Let nature take her course and depopulate those deserts in due time. If you want water, move to where the water is.
  - richk449 4y ago
    Why don’t we apply that logic to other things? If you want carrots, move to where the carrots are grown. If you want a car, move near a car factory. You want oil? Move to Saudi Arabia. Everyone benefits from specialization and trade. I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t apply to water too.

by nkurz 4y ago

ianai 4y ago

I’m pointing out the editorializing implicit in the framing. Apparently groundwater is used for crops all throughout Mexico and the southwest. I definitely wish it weren’t the case and instead a national water grid like how we have national power.

me_again 4y ago
Interestingly, the US doesn't have a true national power grid. https://www.epa.gov/green-power-markets/us-grid-regions https://www.epa.gov/green-power-markets/us-grid-regions The practical difficulty of transporting large amounts of water long distances is even worse than electricity, so I don't think it'll ever be easy to say "Minnesota has a water surplus this year, let's just adjust the pipes to send it to Nevada".
MichaelCollins 4y ago
> a national water grid Awful idea. Why should the wet parts of the country pump their water into deserts where people shouldn't be living/working in the first place? If people want to live in deserts, let them find their own water. No other region should be obliged to supplement their unsustainable desert lifestyle. Let nature take her course and depopulate those deserts in due time. If you want water, move to where the water is.
- richk449 4y ago
  Why don’t we apply that logic to other things? If you want carrots, move to where the carrots are grown. If you want a car, move near a car factory. You want oil? Move to Saudi Arabia. Everyone benefits from specialization and trade. I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t apply to water too.