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The question is: what do the agricultural business interests plan to do? They basically have two strategic choices: 1) try to fix things, taking a short term hi
by nerdponx 4y ago
The question is: what do the agricultural business interests plan to do? They basically have two strategic choices: 1) try to fix things, taking a short term hit for long-term business sustainability, 2) obstruct fixing things, extracting as much value as they can before the collapse, and plan to exit as soon as the collapse really starts to hurt.
If the businesses go with option 2, you're basically SoL unless someone attempts to stand up to them.
- 0xffff2 4y agoThey're obviously doing the latter. The numbers are virtually exactly the same across the west. We've already seen residential wells run dry in California and Oregon at least as farmers just drill deeper and deeper wells.
- giantg2 4y agoYou're also likely to be SoL on option 1. What new crops exactly can we replace those crops with? What do the financials for that look like? In general, if it was financially feasible and less risky then people would already have switched to that technology/crop/etc.
- dylan604 4y agoAt some point people have to realize that just because there is a vast area of relatively flat land, does not mean that land is good for agriculture. If something cannot be grown there in the native environment without artificially propping it up, then it might just be time to not do that there any longer.
- toofy 4y ago> What new crops exactly can we replace those crops with? for a large number of them i don’t think we replace the crops with anything… why are we treating massive chunks of some of the dryest desert as if it “must” grow something?
- Iwan-Zotow 4y agoThere are people living in the area, say 5mln or so They have to eat 3 times per day, maybe more. All food now supposed to be tracked from say Great Lakes region, 1500miles? Utah resembling Saudi Arabia?
- WarOnPrivacy 4y ago> They have to eat 3 times per day, maybe more. All food now supposed to be tracked from say Great Lakes region, 1500miles? Food typically travels farther now. Oranges in FL have been shipped in from Argentina for generations.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoThe thing is that for the most part, business interest don't have a problem while cities do. Agricultural interest typically have older water rights than cities which are more established. The challenges that cities in populations have grown and need more water, which does not exist. This only becomes a problem for the agricultural businesses when cities try to take their water without paying fair market value
- bushbaba 4y agoWhy should water rights be indefinite? Seems like a bad deal for the state. Realistically they should be auctioned off each decade or come with heafty yearly liscensing fees based off demand & supply.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoI agree that maybe they should be. The question is how you go from the current state of affairs to this new paradigm. US law and rights prevents the government from simply coming in in taking property without compensation. This is the same reason that the government can't simply seize land, housing, or bank accounts of law abiding citizens to address various problems like homelessness.
- kortilla 4y agoThe government absolutely can seize land for projects. Eminent domain.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> Why should water rights be indefinite? Same reason property rights are.
- scarmig 4y agoIt's a bit different, in that property rights are (at least in part) around to incentivize production of the property. Probably a better analogy is property rights in land.