Your concern is spot on, and it's not even specific to California. Nevada and Arizona also consume far more water with farming than all urban uses combined. Cut

Your concern is spot on, and it's not even specific to California. Nevada and Arizona also consume far more water with farming than all urban uses combined. Cutting back on swimming pools or lawns or whatever is fine, but it's literally a rounding error compared to the water consumed by farming. Nothing else will matter if we keep growing water intensive crops in the desert.