Electile Dysfunction (Current students plz look!)

[.RJ]

And why spend millions to reduce the use of what is effectively a free resource? Too be good citizens? Come on. Not in our capitalist system. Read the book I linked if you want to get into the how did we get here. If the big ag companies paid market rate for their water, then its a very clear case to invest more in more efficient use of it - I think the blatant disregard of the laws because big ag lobbying is what really rustles me.

Here's some more data points on the water use.

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-pra...water-use/

USDA NASS survey estimates reveal that total farm water applied has been relatively stable over time for the 17 western States, ranging from about 74 maf in 1984 to 76 maf in 2013

Now, in that time our population has grown from 200M to 325M, so we are feeding more people with the same agricultural water use.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/gov...-cut-back/

Farmers are using about the same amount of water as they did in 1960s, but they have doubled the amount of money they get.

http://cekern.ucanr.edu/Irrigation_Manag...riculture/

The report outlines as much as 6.45 million acre-feet (MAF) per year of conservation savings could be generated through four different conservation scenarios. This is more than twice the water that the whole of Kern County uses in a year to irrigate more than 800,000 acres of fruits, nuts, vegetables and field crops.

At least things seem to be picking up

https://mavensnotebook.com/portfolio/agr...fficiency/

Farmers are increasing their use of drip irrigation and micro-sprinklers; a survey of growers in 2010 found that the irrigated acreage using drip irrigation and micro-sprinklers increased 16% between 2001 and 2011, while the acreage of land irrigated using surface irrigation methods decreased by 13%.

However, conversion of traditional irrigation systems to pressurized systems and installing advanced technologies requires significant investment in facilities and equipment, as well additional energy that increases costs for both the water supplier and the growers. The California Farm Water Coalition reports that from 2003-2008, San Joaquin Valley farmers invested $1.5 billion in high efficiency irrigation equipment; considerably more has been spent in recent years. These additional costs can be a challenge for many water suppliers and growers.

My point remains is, that compared to the rest of the world we're pretty far behind. And yes, you're right that my statement that farming has done fuckall, is not actually correct, because they couldnt have scaled up like they have without more efficient delivery of water - but controlling the use of it has really lagged behind, and, the persistent damming up of rivers is destroying ecosystems. This isnt a Trump thing though, this ball started rolling over 100 years ago.