Or stop watering the grass?
Watering the grass isn't the issue. Residential consumption accounts for (last I heard) about 6% of water use in SoCal.
Agricultural is the big user at 80% use of all water brought in. And of that, almonds and walnuts use a ridiculous amount of water. Instead of brown lawns, perhaps they should focus on restrictions and improvements on agricultural water use where it could really have an impact. But they don't. They're gonna let the reservoirs run dry so people can snack on almonds.
Yes, there are farmers that need the water. But this isn't the "bread basket" of the country. There are many farms here. Many livelihoods depend on it, but why not a shift on WHAT is being farmed given the current situation? This continues, and there won't be anyone around in the area to buy those water gobbling walnuts and almonds. And when the population moves because there is no water, there will be no support systems for those farms (people), and they'll go tits up in short order. In many areas of the country the farming industry is what supports the community. Maybe not the case in SoCal entirely, but run SoCal out of water, and what do you have left? Farmers with dried up walnut and almond farms.
I likely understand not a lot of it, but what I do know leaves me shaking my head. Or maybe I'm off base and someone will correct me. I can live without almonds. Can't live without life sustaining type crops and water.
Can you just imagine the audacity of some people eating, no, SNACKING, on walnuts and almonds?
They should just quit that and eat cane sugar and wear cotton. That’s a much better use of water….
In all seriousness, in my last “real job” our fish farm was attacked for “using absurd amounts of water”. I never could get a number on exactly how much water those fish drank!
But, many people will believe anything they read, and too many of those will regurgitate it as fact.
Well, yeah, them fish drink a whole lot of water, especially them fresh water ones !
Here's something for folks to chew on. This is America, land of the free, right? Let's say you own (or even lease) land in CA, and want to make a living off it? You have rights to "X" amount of water, and want to maximize your return on investment in your farm.
There's a reason almond production has gone up in Cali, almost year over year for the last 10 years or so. From 1.6 Billion lbs (yes, with a B) to 2.5 Billion lbs in 2019-2020. They are money makers.
Now, do we as a society want to tell a money making American farmer to farm broccoli, or carrots, or even tomatoes and lettuce instead of making better money farming almonds? Or walnuts? Or any other higher value crop?
Here's another thing to think about.........................
2/3 of those almonds are an EXPORT product.and the almond producers are pushing for more exposure in foreign countries
And the work continues. In the past year, the Almond Board expanded its areas of nutrition research with its first study in the area of beauty. To ensure consumers are keeping almonds top of mind, the Almond Board is also continuing its efforts to build demand through consumer marketing programs in 11 countries, from India and Japan to the U.S. and Mexico. The past year’s programs included launching new advertising campaigns in multiple markets, including in the United Kingdom and India to continue building demand globally for California almonds.
And I didn't make those numbers up, or get them from .gov even. Straight from an industry source, read the article if your interested.
https://pacificnutproducer.com/2020/09/10/ca-almonds-global-shipments-trends/Show we as a society, tell those almond producers we are going to cut their water because most of their production goes to foreign countries and our citizens need the water more than India, China, and even the United Kingdom need almonds???
Read that paragraph closely. Read that second sentence carefully. Notice the "expanded its areas of nutrition research with its first study in the area of beauty." part of the sentence? Is "beauty" part of the "areas of nutrition", any link to nutrition at all? Maybe if those almonds are more beautiful they will be more nutritious? Or, is the Almond Board more interested in boosting sales to certain consumers? (look into cherry exports to Japan for instance, HINT)
Hopefully some of the Cali farmers that play here will chime in, I'm pretty sure a couple of them at least have looked into water saving measures as their allotments get reduced, or just for the purpose of saving money.
Money might be the answer to the problem. But it opens a whole other can of worms. Start charging more and maybe some folks in areas of the water starved west will stop taking 2-3 showers a day, stop washing their cars at home every week, stop letting the water run in the sink while washing dishes, stop letting water rund down the street when watering their landscaping, farmers might have to start looking into more efficient irrigation systems if they haven't already.
The problem is......................the West is, and has been for a very long time, addicted to CHEAP WATER.
For those proposing schemes of bringing water from some other place to places that need it, look into what happened in Owens Valley when LA acquired the "rights" to their water. If we start pumping water from the Columbia, the Mississippi, the Great Lakes etc, the outcome is likely to be less than desired, especially for folks where the water is being taken from. Well, maybe not the ones there with the water rights they can sell for a profit.
