RE: Who owns water? Experts debate pricing, infrastructure investment
.When it comes to applying the California Constitution's beneficial use standards to farming, Peter Gleick's one-size fits all approach is all wet. Saying that a farmer who uses four acres to grow what could be grown on three is wasting water ignores the variability of farmland throughout the state. If a farmer produces 4,000 lbs. of pistachios per acre and his neighbor produces 5,000 lbs on the same age trees, is the first farmer wasting water? Gleick would say "yes" but he's wrong. One farm's potential cannot be judged efficient or not efficient based on the same standard applied to all farms anymore than one factory producing fewer widgets than its competitor would be judged as wasting resources.
The Constitution says farming is a beneficial use of water. People like Peter Gleick want to redefine it for their own purposes and that kind of misuse is a bad deal for all California water users.
Mike Wade
California Farm Water Coalition
www.farmwater.org
