How Growers Gamed California’s Drought

Re:How Growers Gamed California’s Drought by TulliusCicero on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @07:54PM (#9300680)

Farmers are sacred in America. People are terrified of the idea that, "if we cut how much water they get, how will we eat???" Never mind that such thinking is nonsense. What will happen if water becomes more expensive is that farmers will adopt more efficient technology, they will grow somewhat less of the thirstier crops, and those crops will go up in price somewhat.

So yes, the downside is that the price of your almonds and alfalfa will be a bit higher; the upside is that people will have enough water for day to day use to live normally.

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Re:How Growers Gamed California’s Drought by raldi on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @08:01PM (#9300713)

> if we cut how much water they get, how will we eat?

And the thing is, we don't even need to curtail farming to the point where it impacts what we (Californians) eat. We just need to stop using California's water to grow things that people in other states (or other continents) eat.

Or charge them more for it, and use the proceeds to pay for expensive water-production and water-preservation technology.

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Re:How Growers Gamed California’s Drought by WalterSear on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @07:55PM (#9300689)

Also, "if we enforce immigration laws or require farmers to pay a living wage, how will we eat?"

It's despicable.

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Re:How Growers Gamed California’s Drought by clamprecht on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @08:51PM (#9300897)

And I guess 150 years ago, it was "If we can't use slave labor, how can we afford to produce X".

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Re:How Growers Gamed California’s Drought by WalterSear on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @08:57PM (#9300915)

Human psychology and its inherent cognitive dissonance and moral relativism is an absolute bitch.

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Re:How Growers Gamed California’s Drought by IndianAstronaut on Wednesday April 01, 2015 @01:51AM (#9301842)

We don't need too much water to grow many crops.

http://www.gereports.com/post/91250246340/lettuce-see-the-fu...

"the farm can also cut its water usage to just 1 percent of the amount needed by outdoor fields."

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Re:How Growers Gamed California’s Drought by beamatronic on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @08:04PM (#9300725)

I'm ready to have a STEM-based government where all of the participants ( read: politicians ) are from a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math background.

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Re:How Growers Gamed California’s Drought by oldmanjay on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @08:08PM (#9300738)

Of course, you'd be hard-pressed to find a person alive who isn't onboard with the idea that everything should be run by people they perceive as most like themselves. It's not a terribly useful sentiment.

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Re:How Growers Gamed California’s Drought by nsnick on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @08:14PM (#9300762)

Doesn't China have a government like that?

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Re:How Growers Gamed California’s Drought by dmoy on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @08:46PM (#9300880)

Yes, especially if you include economics in STEM, then 5 out of 7 on the standing committee are in that boat, as well as many of the previous members.

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Re:How Growers Gamed California’s Drought by BrainInAJar on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @08:37PM (#9300848)

lots of repressive states have engineering led governments.

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