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Re:The Last Drops of Mexico City by Nifty3929 on Thursday March 20, 2025 @03:21PM (#43427716)
Some responders have challenged my assertion that Sacramento is a desert. I concede the point - it's actually classified as Mediterranean.

That said, rice consumes a lot of irrigation water:

"In California, there is very little to no rainfall during the rice growing season, so this is not usually considered in water budgets. On average, about 5 acre feet/acre (AF/ac) of irrigation water is applied to a rice field during the growing"

https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiceTestSite/files/328501.pdf

Also, rice is not a particularly big water consumer compared to other crops - it's just one that came to mind. You could pick from dozens of others - Almonds, pistachios, etc.

California simply uses a LOT of water to produce a LOT of food, about half of it being exported.

Re:The Last Drops of Mexico City by yimby2001 on Thursday March 20, 2025 @06:40PM (#43429877)
Are you saying California shouldn’t export food? It’s one of the best food growing environments on the planet.
Re:The Last Drops of Mexico City by fakedang on Thursday March 20, 2025 @07:28PM (#43430217)
Well if you wish for California to become the next Sahelian desert, sure. California is already on track to become one adverse climate event away from turning into a complete clusterfuck.
Re:The Last Drops of Mexico City by mapt on Friday March 21, 2025 @07:03AM (#43434187)
CA's central valley is missing ~140 million acre feet of groundwater relative to historical norms, and is pumping an additional ~15 million acre feet a year. Ban that and desalinate 30 million acre feet of oceanwater at $2000 per acre-foot and you can have your cake and eat it too at a cost of 60 billion dollars a year, expand agriculture and develop a sustainable aquifer & watershed.

But central valley agriculture only makes $37 billion a year.