The 20 Farming Families Who Use More Water From the Colorado River Than Some Western States
The 20 Farming Families Who Use More Water From the Colorado River Than Some Western States
Tens of millions of people — and millions of acres of farmland — rely on the Colorado River’s water. But as its supply shrinks, these farmers get more water from the river than entire states.
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I don't know how to resolve this kind of issue without it looking like a transfer of wealth from us fellow tax-payers to these big farm families:
- Pay to purchase their water rights, and provide a place in a wetter area of California to resume growing,
- or let them stay in place, pay to reduce their water usage
Or we spend real money and quality of life to illegally deny them water, but all our food prices go up, nevermind the legal costs.
At some point it won't matter what's legal or not, we need water to drink.
This is seemingly an expensive problem to resolve, but two key items need to be cared for, no matter the decision: skilled farmers who knows how to produce need to be kept working if they choose, and we need to start thinking in a more than quarterly manner to plan for long term success. Who thought growing food in the desert was a good idea?
C) charge them the for the water they are pulling out of a river they don't actually own.
They decided to farm in a desert because they could pass the enormous cost of doing so to other people. They aren't owed shit.
Sure, that's a given. But longer term.... I think we gotta get people out of the desert in terms of farming. Trade forests for farms? I dislike the hell out of that. There's gotta be something else.
These farms produce alfalfa for animal feed, almost exclusively. We just don't need the amount of meat that we currently consume, it's just about the least efficient way to turn water into food. We could just lose these farms entirely and it would just make steak and dairy products a bit more expensive, which they probably should be given the massive environmental impact from producing them.
All valid points in my opinion, I'm just trying to think of what we need to set as goals for California's farming operations long term. I'm a resident here and I want this place to succeed.
Success could certainly look like cheaper fruits and veggies vs meat and byproducts if the land were guided to being food producing vs feedcrops.