California is in its driest year to date, and this clearly affects the water distribution concerning the Colorado River. That is why the federal government is proposing more solutions to help the dwindling river and its directed towards the backbone of the US economy: farming.
“I understand that we’re in a water crisis,” President of Aziz Farms in Thermal, Mark Tadros, said. “But also, we need to be looking at other ways to save water than just saying, stop growing food that we need, which is really what it boils down to. We need this food and we need to keep growing.”
After hearing the Interior Department announce they are willing to pay farmers as much as $400 per acre foot of water to either fallow crops or find other ways to conserve, he said there is no price point he can think that would be worth it.
“Nothing’s enough,” Tadros continued. “We grow a third of the nation’s vegetables and two thirds of the nation’s fruits here in California. This is part of our economy. $400 per acre foot of water is not enough, and there isn’t enough for me to shut down what it is that we do here, which is we grow the food that feeds the entire nation. We do not want to stop growing.”
Source: nbcpalmsprings.com