Alfalfa is the poster child for exactly the right crop for the western U.S. climate. Farmers aren't idiots, they know what crops produce the highest yields per

Alfalfa is the poster child for exactly the right crop for the western U.S. climate. Farmers aren't idiots, they know what crops produce the highest yields per gallon of water. The only reason there are water wasting crops like corn is through government subsidies. Alfalfa is not subsidized, yet you want to make that the focus. And California exporting ~20% of their alfalfa is a drop in the bucket relative to the agricultural industry as a whole, seems strange to fixate on that. There isn't a water shortage. Cities are wasting their fresh water through mismanagement. They could syphon off 10% of the runoff to little to no environmental effect, but they don't because there is no political capital to be gained. And water rights are attached to land, it isn't just "given", farmers need to buy, own and maintain the land to preserve their water rights. Which has more free market qualities than any proposal I've heard coming out of the California legislature.