alt Hacker NewsWhy are we growing crops that depend on monsoon amounts of water in the desert? Because people with money and power have decided that's what they want to do.
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missedthecue • last Tuesday at 9:04 PM
The explanation has never made intuitive sense to me and the political power of almond and alfalfa farmers continues to elude me. Yes, almond farmers have money but Larry Ellison, Musk, and Sergey Brin have a shitload more. As do non-tech industries like Californian real estate developers. California has ~40 billionaires from real estate alone. That industry, and tech, and manufacturing, and everyone else is also competing for water supply.
What makes almond farmers so good at procuring and maintaining political influence?
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Because farming in a desert means you have as much sun as you could want, and can (with the aid of groundwater and water transport infrastructure) add as much water as you need, when you need it, and at no other times (harvest etc).