lack of water isnt a bigger problem?

Using ground water for irrigation increases the salinity.

Specifically groundwater use with poor drainage leads to salt accumulation over time as the water evaporates and the trace amounts of salt present in the "fresh" water are left behind.

why don't they use reverse osmosis? because they move the farm when the soil is contaminated? CA is messed up when it comes to agriculture

Reverse osmosis is super expensive.

The central valley accounts for 1% of US farmland by area and 8% of US agriculture by revenue. Whatever they're doing wrong, they're also doing something right.

Profiting from unsustainable farming is "right"? It sounds like they can afford not to destroy the soil.

What they're doing is raising exotic cash crops instead of huge fields corn and soybeans. The climate allows them to grow crops that would not survive midwestern winters, like almonds.

yeah, and they dry up Mexico in the process... thanks democrats

California agriculture uses roughly 10¹³ gallons of "applied" water a year [0]. That would cost a bit more than $200 to run RO on.

[0] https://www.ppic.org/publication/water-use-in-california/

Because they don't get taxed properly for destroying the environment, it would be a lot worst.