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The unfortunate thing is that large stretches of California desert (and much of the Central Valley to the north) used to be lake bottoms and have incredibly ric
by lekanwang 3y ago
The unfortunate thing is that large stretches of California desert (and much of the Central Valley to the north) used to be lake bottoms and have incredibly rich and fertile soils. Between that and a long growing season that's nearly cloudless, you get ideal growing conditions -- rich soil, lots of sun, low moisture (i.e. low disease load), and H2A labor -- provided you can control the irrigation. Ah the problems caused by mispriced externalities...
- mateo411 3y agoMost of the water that goes to farms in the Central Valley does not come from the Colorado river. It comes the Sierra and Owens Valley. The farm lands that would be impacted by this are in Imperial County.
- picantePepper 3y agoWhatever trickle of water left over as it passed through imperial valley ends up in the armpit of Baja California where there is a lot of agriculture (which probably ends up in the US). I wonder how is Baja California going to react to this much needed plan for the Colorado river’s supply
- dragonwriter 3y ago> I wonder how is Baja California going to react to this much needed plan for the Colorado river’s supply This doesn't affect what the US is obligated to deliver to Mexico, so so (other than perhaps feeling slightly more confident that they will get their water) probably not much at all
- lekanwang 3y agoYep, you're right. Only meant to associate them in terms of why they're valued land, but yes, they're in separate riparian zones. Central valley is Sacramento/San Joaquin river delta.
- dendrite9 3y agoI thought many of the greens we buy in the winter are grown with Colorado river water in Southern California and Arizona?