Originally Posted by
Rick Kirchner
And the central valley really doesn't grow much "food" in terms of vegetables. They grow almonds, pistachios, and table grapes because they figured out that the state can't cut the water off in dry years for perennial crops.
If they actually grew "food" there, the price you pay at the grocery store would plummet. The Central Valley is 20x the size of all the vegetable growing areas in the west combined. Everybody in the US could eat fresh healthy food at a fraction of the current price.
Most of what we consider "food" is grown around Ventura, Santa Maria, Salinas, between the Salton Sea and Mexicali, Blythe, and between Goodyear and Tuscon AZ.
I predict that's going to change. Right now Ag uses 80% of available water to support 2.5% of state GDP.