Reply #3: You're thinking of the mom and pop farms [View All]

[tularetom]

that the irrigation laws as written were supposed to support and encouraged. Like the one I lived on as a kid. At least my dad was smart enough to see the writing on the wall and get out before the corporate farms and "agribusiness" manipulated the water laws for their own benefit and forced the family farmers out of business.

Giving people free water does not encourage them to conserve water or develop efficient water delivery or planting practices.

Originally you could get reclamation water at a steep discount only if you owned less than 160 acres. Over the years, corporations managed to get those limitations altered and finally eliminated so now "farms" with holdings in the thousands of acre are able to buy water for pennies on the dollar of actual cost. You and I are paying the rest through taxes. This is the "bailout" that nobody thinks about.

And don't even get me started on how the corporate farms have thumbed their noses at immigration laws and contributed to our current problems with illegal immigration.

This are is a feudal economy with a small and powerful group of the very well off, a ginormous group of the very poor and very few of us in what might be considered a middle class.

We are the Appalachia of California.