Comment by dcrazy
17 days ago
We don’t decide what to grow based on what someone decides is “critical for living.” We decide what to grow based on what sells for a decent margin above cost. Some countries in the Eastern Hemisphere tried the first way and it didn’t work out very well.
Sure - the problem is that the almond farmers are being incentivized to grow almonds by giving them a significantly below market cost. If the the costs reflected reality, almonds wouldn’t be profitable.
Municipal water users subsidize the growth of those almonds because of a water rights system that was imagined when California was mostly empty.
Agricultural users should be free to pay market rates for their water like everyone else. They will absolutely still be able to make a profit growing almonds since they basically own the market.
> We decide what to grow based on what sells for a decent margin above cost.
The problem, as others said, is that their cost is artificially low as they don't pay market rate for water.