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The problem isn't storage capacity. It's wasteful consumption growing water-intensive crops in the desert.
by oatmeal1 9mo ago
The problem isn't storage capacity. It's wasteful consumption growing water-intensive crops in the desert.
- bibimsz 9mo agocrops are kind of important though
- cowsandmilk 9mo agoThey don’t have to be grown in the desert
- dcrazy 9mo agoAlmonds aren’t grown in the desert, they’re grown in the Central Valley. And they’re grown there because before it’s incredibly fertile soil.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- Izikiel43 9mo agoYou can grow almonds elsewhere, they are not needed for daily life
- michaeldh 9mo agoCA, apparently, grows almonds for the entire United States, and 80% of the world's almonds, too.
- Izikiel43 9mo agoSure, I'm not saying they don't, but it isn't a critical crop for day to day life, biologically speaking. No one is going to die for not eating almonds. Is it economically important? For sure. Is it critical for living? No.
- dcrazy 9mo agoWe don’t decide what to grow based on what someone decides is “critical for living.” We decide what to grow based on what sells for a decent margin above cost. Some countries in the Eastern Hemisphere tried the first way and it didn’t work out very well.
- gbear605 9mo agoSure - the problem is that the almond farmers are being incentivized to grow almonds by giving them a significantly below market cost. If the the costs reflected reality, almonds wouldn’t be profitable.
- mrguyorama 9mo agoMunicipal water users subsidize the growth of those almonds because of a water rights system that was imagined when California was mostly empty. Agricultural users should be free to pay market rates for their water like everyone else. They will absolutely still be able to make a profit growing almonds since they basically own the market.
- Izikiel43 9mo ago> We decide what to grow based on what sells for a decent margin above cost. The problem, as others said, is that their cost is artificially low as they don't pay market rate for water.
- ryankshaw 9mo agoIt absolutely is about storage capacity. If California built out a better system of reservoirs, it wouldn't need to take water from other states in the Colorado river basin.