[b]So if over population is a problem, which it would have to be with a water shortage, why not curb illegals coming in? Why would it 'have to be'? You do know this is the science forum not the lies and politics forum?
The largest users of water by far are the farmers (including those growing pot 🙂 ), and rich people watering their ...[text shortened]... could get farmers to use water more efficiently and generally improve their farming techniques.[/b]
But farming is a large part of their economy.
You don't really expect them to scale down their economy, especially in light of the massive welfare state they have created there that needs funded.
Originally posted by whodey But farming is a large part of their economy.
You don't really expect them to scale down their economy, especially in light of the massive welfare state they have created there that needs funded.
An economy which consists of growing food to throw away, or growing food wastefully, or growing food to turn into fuel and using fuel to do the growing, or growing food based on subsidies etc is not an economy that will necessarily be hurt by reducing the farming to some degree.
As I already pointed out, reduced farm subsidy payments might actually save some money.
But to be honest I know very little about agriculture in California. I do know that they can almost certainly use less water if they tried.
Originally posted by twhitehead An economy which consists of growing food to throw away, or growing food wastefully, or growing food to turn into fuel and using fuel to do the growing, or growing food based on subsidies etc is not an economy that will necessarily be hurt by reducing the farming to some degree.
As I already pointed out, reduced farm subsidy payments might actually save ...[text shortened]... griculture in California. I do know that they can almost certainly use less water if they tried.
I was born in California and from my years in Israel, a country that doesn't have a lot of water and therefore really went whole hog developing water saving agriculture, California could learn a lot from the Israeli system of watering.
Originally posted by sonhouse I was born in California and from my years in Israel, a country that doesn't have a lot of water and therefore really went whole hog developing water saving agriculture, California could learn a lot from the Israeli system of watering.
Knowledge of better farming methods is not in short supply. Tradition and general aversion to change are usually the problem. Many parts of the world could dramatically increase their productivity simply by adopting well known best practice farming methods.
There are some relatively new ideas that can do even better and may not be so well known, but even the methods that are well known are often not applied. Partly because there is significant risk in trying something new. In Zambia farmers often do not change until they see their neighbors try it and succeed. But the result is new ideas take a long time to spread.
In California, it is probably largely a case of doing what they have always done is cheapest for the farmer because they do not have to pay all the costs - their water is heavily subsidized.
new Calif. problem: It's sinking, 2 inches/month!
25 Aug '15 10:50
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