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Guess what word Cmd/Ctrl-F won't find in TFA? "Agriculture". All that I saw mentioned was "residential". I'm not saying CA has to immediately cut off the almond

Guess what word Cmd/Ctrl-F won't find in TFA? "Agriculture". All that I saw mentioned was "residential". I'm not saying CA has to immediately cut off the almond farmers (sure seems like a damned fine idea, though), but could agriculture's role in the situation get at least a passing mention? Other than that, I don't know what else there is to say that hasn't already been said. The Colorado River is drying up, that doesn't look to be changing any time soon, but governments seem to still be going on about watering grass while avoiding the mention of the largest consumers, agriculture and industry. Okay, I guess the Southwestern U. S. is screwed; with that dead horse thoroughly beaten, let's go back to talking about Twitter.

AnimalMuppet 4y ago
I can maybe somewhat see it. If your can't water your yard and it dies, you can put down sod next year, and have a yard. If you can't water your almond orchard and it dies, and you have water next year, how long before you have a functional orchard? So one could argue that it makes some sense to route the damage to the places that can recover from the damage the fastest. But, of California's agriculture, how much of it is alfalfa and lettuce and stuff like that? Stuff that, if you got no water this year, you could just replant next year? (Can you just replant alfalfa in one year? Lettuce I'm sure you can. Strawberries... not sure. Tomatoes, definitely you can.)
- AustinDev 4y ago
  What I don't understand is why can't we just grow the Almonds in Georgia or Virginia? Both states have amazing soil and tons of water. Are Almonds that much harder to farm than peanuts and pecans? I'm genuinely curious I only know how to grow hydroponic herbs like basil, so I have very limited knowledge of this stuff.
  - labcomputer 4y ago
    You can. California grows almonds because labor is expensive and almonds are a low labor, high value crop. And since farmers pay artificially low prices for water, they don’t care that almonds are an inefficient use of the state’s limited water supply.
    - AustinDev 4y ago
      I'd rather they grow us more fruit and let the 'wet' states grow the almonds. This Almonds in a desert seems very inefficient.
      - dumbotron 4y ago
        Peaches take about as much water as almonds.
  - rsj_hn 4y ago
    California is cursed with an amazingly efficient agricultural industry and just went through a freak 100 year wet period that set people's expectations for normal rainfall and agricultural planning. The combination of long, sunny growing periods, and the illusion of reliable abundant water created an ideal growing climate. Much like Silicon Valley, this is a productive ecosystem that arose in which farmers who are aware of best practices and have access to appropriate supplier, financing, and skilled/unskilled labor pools. It's really amazing how much more productive California is compared to agriculture east of the Mississippi. This accounts for why so much agriculture is here even though it really shouldn't be, due to the water situation. California is a semi-arid climate that has had -- looking at tree ring data -- up to 200 year-long droughts, and should be used to raise reasonable-sized populations of free range grass fed cattle and sheep, rather than water intensive food crops. The latter should be limited to small plots of land that are regularly rotated. The previous 100 years in California - when the agricultural industry developed - were unusually wet, and this has set the baseline expectations, but that is most likely an outlier, and we should be prepared for a few hundred years of drought. "“We continue to run California as if the longest drought we are ever going to encounter is about seven years,” said Scott Stine, a professor of geography and environmental studies at Cal State East Bay. “We’re living in a dream world.”"[1] [...] "Stine, who has spent decades studying tree stumps in Mono Lake, Tenaya Lake, the Walker River and other parts of the Sierra Nevada, said that the past century has been among the wettest of the last 7,000 years." [1] * * * [1] https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/01/25/california-drought-past-dry-periods-have-lasted-more-than-200-years-scientists-say/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/01/25/california-drought-pa... [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/369546a0 https://www.nature.com/articles/369546a0
bsder 4y ago
> Okay, I guess the Southwestern U. S. is screwed No, people in the Southwest are going to be fine. California keeps bringing desalinization plants online. Desal plants can produce plenty of water for people--even your swimming pool and front lawn. What they don't do is provide water for agriculture because the price is set by production cost. The argibusinesses in the Central Valley are going to keep going until complete collapse--ref. Easter Island. So it goes.

AnimalMuppet 4y ago

I can maybe somewhat see it. If your can't water your yard and it dies, you can put down sod next year, and have a yard. If you can't water your almond orchard and it dies, and you have water next year, how long before you have a functional orchard? So one could argue that it makes some sense to route the damage to the places that can recover from the damage the fastest. But, of California's agriculture, how much of it is alfalfa and lettuce and stuff like that? Stuff that, if you got no water this year, you could just replant next year? (Can you just replant alfalfa in one year? Lettuce I'm sure you can. Strawberries... not sure. Tomatoes, definitely you can.)

AustinDev 4y ago
What I don't understand is why can't we just grow the Almonds in Georgia or Virginia? Both states have amazing soil and tons of water. Are Almonds that much harder to farm than peanuts and pecans? I'm genuinely curious I only know how to grow hydroponic herbs like basil, so I have very limited knowledge of this stuff.
- labcomputer 4y ago
  You can. California grows almonds because labor is expensive and almonds are a low labor, high value crop. And since farmers pay artificially low prices for water, they don’t care that almonds are an inefficient use of the state’s limited water supply.
  - AustinDev 4y ago
    I'd rather they grow us more fruit and let the 'wet' states grow the almonds. This Almonds in a desert seems very inefficient.
    - dumbotron 4y ago
      Peaches take about as much water as almonds.
- rsj_hn 4y ago
  California is cursed with an amazingly efficient agricultural industry and just went through a freak 100 year wet period that set people's expectations for normal rainfall and agricultural planning. The combination of long, sunny growing periods, and the illusion of reliable abundant water created an ideal growing climate. Much like Silicon Valley, this is a productive ecosystem that arose in which farmers who are aware of best practices and have access to appropriate supplier, financing, and skilled/unskilled labor pools. It's really amazing how much more productive California is compared to agriculture east of the Mississippi. This accounts for why so much agriculture is here even though it really shouldn't be, due to the water situation. California is a semi-arid climate that has had -- looking at tree ring data -- up to 200 year-long droughts, and should be used to raise reasonable-sized populations of free range grass fed cattle and sheep, rather than water intensive food crops. The latter should be limited to small plots of land that are regularly rotated. The previous 100 years in California - when the agricultural industry developed - were unusually wet, and this has set the baseline expectations, but that is most likely an outlier, and we should be prepared for a few hundred years of drought. "“We continue to run California as if the longest drought we are ever going to encounter is about seven years,” said Scott Stine, a professor of geography and environmental studies at Cal State East Bay. “We’re living in a dream world.”"[1] [...] "Stine, who has spent decades studying tree stumps in Mono Lake, Tenaya Lake, the Walker River and other parts of the Sierra Nevada, said that the past century has been among the wettest of the last 7,000 years." [1] * * * [1] https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/01/25/california-drought-past-dry-periods-have-lasted-more-than-200-years-scientists-say/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/01/25/california-drought-pa... [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/369546a0 https://www.nature.com/articles/369546a0

bsder 4y ago

> Okay, I guess the Southwestern U. S. is screwed No, people in the Southwest are going to be fine. California keeps bringing desalinization plants online. Desal plants can produce plenty of water for people--even your swimming pool and front lawn. What they don't do is provide water for agriculture because the price is set by production cost. The argibusinesses in the Central Valley are going to keep going until complete collapse--ref. Easter Island. So it goes.