I love you California. Your diversity of landscape and natural beauty and your richness of culture and inclusiveness make California one of my favorite places on our planet. California you have been truly gifted with lush forests and magnificent ocean coast.
California, you're also gifted politically. I know to you who live there it can be a struggle and gifted seems far-fetched, but California is a blue state and attracts the envy of many of us from the oppressed, suffering red and pink states. I'd much rather have a Governor Moonbeam than the sociopathic fraudster who is destroying my state to satisfy his insatiable greed irregardless of the consequences.
You have it all California, that's why so much is expected from you.
So now California, you have a crisis with no end in sight. A water crisis which affects us all. As one of our greatest national food producers you have done a stellar job in keeping the US supplied with the best and freshest produce. But now, you are at a fork in the road and the way that you handle this crisis will have a profound effect on how or if we can even keep ourselves fed during the next few decades as we struggle with the effects of climate change.
All I've seen coming from you are desperate band -aid fixes. Get real. Though it has to be done, asking consumers who only utilize 4% of water use in your state for small sacrifices is at best kicking the empty bucket down the road. Sure, it makes it appear that something is being done, but, the agricultural elephant in the room is gobbling up most of your water and you're looking the other way, hoping that big ass giant is just a mirage.
NASA water scientist, Jay Famiglietti says "We're not just up a creek without a paddle in California, we're losing the creek too." He says with current usage you have only about one year of water left.
California, there is opportunity for us all in how you manage this crisis. You've gotten where you are by living as if there is no tomorrow. For heavens sake, California, you have a lot of desert which you irrigate to maintain your unsustainable production. 90%, yes 90% of California water use goes to agriculture! The Pacific Institute did an assessment of California water use and came to the conclusion that about one-half of the average Californian's water footprint comes from meat and dairy products.
my emphasis
“As pressures on water resources intensify, evaluating our impact on the world’s water resources becomes increasingly important; the water footprint is one way to quantify this impact,” said Julian Fulton, lead author of the report. “Most of California’s water footprint is external, meaning that Californians are more dependent on water resources from other places than in-state.”
More than 90% of California’s water footprint is associated with agricultural products: meat and dairy products have especially large water footprints due to the water-intensive feed required to raise the animals. An additional 4% of the state’s water footprint is associated with direct household water consumption (primarily for watering lawns and gardens), and the remaining 3% with other industrial products we consume, such as clothing and electronics.
Take a look at the water you eat, California:
California, why are you letting your ass be kicked by ranchers and factory farms? Your agricultural base utilizes 90% of your water yet only provides 2% of your economy. You've sold your soul and given your water to the ranchers and factory farms. Take a look at the concentration of factory farms in California compiled by Food and Water Watch:
Darker areas have higher concentration of factory farms
Kind of makes you want to cough from all the pollution in the air not to mention the immense
water pollution coming from the huge manure lagoons.
You're pulling the wool over the eyes of your residents unless you're able to face the truth about your water consumption. They need to have the correct information to become a part of the solution to your crisis.