Drought’s impact on agriculture varies
By Alex Park and Julia Lurie, Mother Jones
California, supplier of nearly half of all U.S. fruits, veggies, and nuts, is on track to experience the driest year in the past half millennium.
Farms use about 80 percent of the state’s “developed water,” or water that’s moved from its natural source to other areas via pipes and aqueducts.
Much of California’s agriculture is concentrated in the parts of the state that the drought has hit the hardest. For example: Monterey County, which is currently enduring an “exceptional drought,” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, grew nearly half of America’s lettuce and broccoli in 2012.
When it comes to water use, not all plants are created equal.
Interesting, the graphic shows that people in Tahoe City use twice as much (per capita) water than people living in LA, SF or San Diego. In fact, Tahoe City residents are shown to be the second highest consumers of water, after Palm Springs. Drought? Who cares….
Umm Eco. Stay on point. Eighty (80%) percent of water is used by Agri-business in California. Palm Springs residence use over 700 Gallons of fresh water a day versus 300 for Tahoe City. The daily fresh water use in America is about 180 gallons per day; Africa about 5 gallons.
eco, those stats must be skewed. Like maybe per capita is full time residents, versus all the people with second homes or here on vacation. Snow making is a non-agriculture use.
I use 177.7 gallons a day and that includes my sprinkler system for 41 drip lines. 2 bedroom house 2 bathrooms.2 people with company 3 day’s a week.