Well, water isn't really "used". It eventually always evaporates and falls back down to earth. It's only used if some chemical process alters the molecule in so

Well, water isn't really "used". It eventually always evaporates and falls back down to earth. It's only used if some chemical process alters the molecule in some reaction. The problem is 100% of the original water is no longer where you need it, not that some percentage gets into the plant or not. The cost of water is all about moving it and/or filtering it. The analogy that it's a water export oversees applies when you think that they'd have to move that water from somewhere else otherwise to grow that alfalfa. Not that the alfalfa "has" the water. Also, moving insane amounts of water to the desert for an incredibly water hungry plant, because desert land is cheap, and the moving of that water is underpriced... is kind of insane.