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> CA is one of 5 Mediterranean climates in the world, and that makes it suitable to grow all kinds of stuff that doesn't grow anywhere else. 2% GDP is irrelevan
by seanflyon 11y ago
> CA is one of 5 Mediterranean climates in the world, and that makes it suitable to grow all kinds of stuff that doesn't grow anywhere else. 2% GDP is irrelevant because you die without food.
You can live perfectly fine without Mediterranean food and if California stopped growing water-intensive crops it would cause a shortage of those crops, not a shortage of food.
- azinman2 11y agoThat's a non balanced argument. Lots of stuff that grows only in such a climate is way less resource intensive than other stuff being grown that could be moved. For example cattle are far more water intense than even almonds (which are water intensive) yet have no requirement to be in CA. Rice similarly. Plus diversity of food is not only healthy, but increases quality of life.
- seanflyon 11y agoI don't think that anything you wrote here makes sense as a response to my comment. Less resource intensive crops grow here, great. If they are cost effective then we should continue to grow them, if they are not cost effective then clearly they are not "way less resource intensive". The notion that we should maintain water-intensive agriculture because "you die without food" has nothing to do with reality. There is plenty of food and we could grow far more if we wanted to. We are talking about luxury items. If you want crops that only grow in Mediterranean areas, great, so do I. We enjoy our luxuries, but we should not subsidize the unsustainable production of luxuries, which is what we are doing by giving them water at far bellow market rates.