Robert van De Walle of Oakland tries to figure out where all the water goes:
Sustainability Blog: California's Water "Crisis".
Hint: agriculture in the desert.
The SF Chronicle reports on the problems of almond growers, who are raising bumper crops of almonds in our state - 80% for export. They don't have enough water this year, because the salmon run collapsed, because all the mountain runoff got diverted to grow cotton and almonds in the desert. The drought doesn't help.
One commenter asks - why is our government subsidizing the over-production of almonds, which are harvested by guest workers and then exported? Why can't we grow useful crops or just quit using scarce mountain water to irrigate the desert?
The whole system is unsustainable. Oh yes, and those almonds are a mono-crop - they need millions of imported bees to pollinate their flowers, and the poor bees die, possibly from overwork and stress.
Just cut back on industrial agriculture practices. Most of these trees were put in recently. California's food production won't fall apart if we go back to growing more sustainable crops.
Sustainability Blog: California's Water "Crisis".
Hint: agriculture in the desert.
The SF Chronicle reports on the problems of almond growers, who are raising bumper crops of almonds in our state - 80% for export. They don't have enough water this year, because the salmon run collapsed, because all the mountain runoff got diverted to grow cotton and almonds in the desert. The drought doesn't help.
One commenter asks - why is our government subsidizing the over-production of almonds, which are harvested by guest workers and then exported? Why can't we grow useful crops or just quit using scarce mountain water to irrigate the desert?
The whole system is unsustainable. Oh yes, and those almonds are a mono-crop - they need millions of imported bees to pollinate their flowers, and the poor bees die, possibly from overwork and stress.
Just cut back on industrial agriculture practices. Most of these trees were put in recently. California's food production won't fall apart if we go back to growing more sustainable crops.
Have you read the older book Cadillac Desert? The author discusses almond trees, fish and the sordid history of California's water projects.
Posted by: Alison Chaiken | March 01, 2009 at 11:07 PM