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It's not only the billionaires in question, it's also a huge amount of legacy farming operations, same goes for Arizona and Colorado. We're also using a ton of
by NickC25 3y ago
It's not only the billionaires in question, it's also a huge amount of legacy farming operations, same goes for Arizona and Colorado.
We're also using a ton of water to grow alfalfa in the same region, and we're not even using that at home, we're selling it to the Saudis and Chinese so they can feed their livestock.
But these guys really need to get their operation taken away from them - their farms use more water than the entire city of LA does? That's wild, and means that we need regulation there.
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- akudha 3y agoCan’t we ban growing of these high water crops in areas where there is water shortage? One can happily live without eating pistachios their entire life, no?
- Anotheroneagain 3y agoIt's a desert tree that rots when it gets too much rain. You could hardly find a much more suitable crop.
- K0balt 3y agoPistachio is a low water crop.
- illegalsmile 3y agoCompared to what? Relative to other nuts and seeds? To other common ground crops? To fruits? I've never heard that pistachios are low water crops and I find that hard to believe. They're one of the highest blue water consumers in their class; water in rivers, lakes and aquifers [1]. Pistachios are not low water. They're drought tolerant and do well in arid climates but to fruit naturally they need a really good year of water. OR irrigation which we've done in abundance. [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211912420300109 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221191242...
- K0balt 3y agoThanks for informing me- I confused drought tolerance with not requiring much water for production. I’d be interested to know how their water usage would compare to staple foods like beans, rice or wheat, that would give a better sense of the relative imprudence of growing pistachios in that area.
- citrin_ru 3y agoIf there is no incentive to conserve water it would be wasted anyway. If there is an incentive farmers would choose crops which need less water.