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Re:California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold... by jseliger on Saturday February 17, 2018 @01:44PM (#16402024)
People and especially agricultural users don't pay anything like the true cost of water: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/03/the.... Charge everyone the same cost per liter or gallon or 1,000 gallons and you will find out what should actually be grown.
Re:California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold... by notatoad on Saturday February 17, 2018 @02:15PM (#16402189)
> you will find out what should actually be grown.

the problem with that is "what should actually be grown" has different answers depending on whether you value profit or feeding people.

Re:California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold... by fmihaila on Saturday February 17, 2018 @03:21PM (#16402507)
> the problem with that is "what should actually be grown" has different answers depending on whether you value profit or feeding people.

It can only be a choice between making a profit and feeding people at break-even (feeding people while losing money is not sustainable). Beyond that, the profit signal carries useful information about what the people being fed would rather eat, while keeping in line with what is economically and environmentally viable.

The problem with the current situation is that water is mispriced, and mispricing, regardless of whether it favours suppliers or consumers, makes it unsustainable in the long run.

Re:California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold... by YokoZar on Saturday February 17, 2018 @03:09PM (#16402453)
In this case, we aren't feeding people. We're feeding cows.

We're also running into frequent water crises where politicians ask people to shower less while we dump 90% of the state's water on the ground.

Re:California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold... by devmunchies on Saturday February 17, 2018 @04:35PM (#16402856)
Exactly. You want to decrease the water usage inefficiencies up the chain. The govt should advocate eating less animal products (I'm not necessarily saying all) if it really cared about conservation.
Re:California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold... by swsieber on Saturday February 17, 2018 @02:25PM (#16402254)
In this case though the high water items are not what feed people well - almonds and coffee?
Re:California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold... by hueving on Saturday February 17, 2018 @10:22PM (#16404267)
False dichotomy. People will survive just fine with a different crop than almonds.
Re:California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold... by exclusiv on Monday February 19, 2018 @01:06PM (#16414466)
Exactly. One almond requires about a gallon of water. We can easily replace that with a more efficient food.