Depletion of groundwater is accelerating in California's Central Valley

https://phys.org/news/2022-12-depletion-groundwater-california-central-valley.html

by sitkack • 4 years ago

18 5 4 years ago

And salt water intrusion in Coastal California. Everyone knows this. The plan all along has to been to farm the soil to death and then sell it housing developers. The time line is 25-30 years from now. A handful of people own 100k+ acres of corporate farms.

Ag is the biggest scam in California. At the expense of tax payers.

Given that Ag is essential for our food(especially now given the destruction of supply chain)and self sufficiency, it’s important to save soil, protect our water tables and automate Ag which will be gentle on the soil and eliminate labour.

_0w8t• 4 years ago

US alone by various estimates already has enough capacity to produce food to feed 2-4 billions of people. It is just most of this capacity is used to produce various grains for animals to produce cheap meat.

So in general for US reduction in agricultural output just makes meat more expensive shifting diet towards starchy food.

As for specifically for California reducing agricultural land just makes almonds more expensive and one can live without them.

This does not argue that it is Ok to keep the status quo, but claiming that California agriculture is essential for US survival is just wrong.

jelliclesfarm2• 4 years ago

What are these estimates? And define ‘food’.

And yes, I agree with you.

sitkack• 4 years ago

California's historic Sustainable Groundwater Management Act was passed in 2014 with the intent of curbing overpumping and stabilizing aquifer levels. But the law, known as SGMA, gives many local agencies until 2040 to achieve sustainability goals.
Famiglietti said the findings indicate that timeline may be far too long, pointing to a need to speed up implementation of regulation under the law. The current pace of groundwater losses is now nearly five times faster than the long-term average since the 1960s.

stjohnswarts• 4 years ago

Until California accepts reality and controls ag and only allows cultivation of plants that make sense for the limited water resources in the state it will continue to get worse.

Depletion of groundwater is accelerating in California's Central Valley

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