Lex Anteinternet: Californians who don't "get it" about their drought and water rationing.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Californians who don't "get it" about their drought and water rationing.

Stockton (vicinity), California. Mexican agricultural laborers harvesting sugar beets

Imperial Valley, California, 1940s.

As those following the news are aware of, California has imposed water rationing in light of the severe drought they are suffering.

Stockton (vicinity), California. Mexican agricultural laborer topping sugar beets

Some are now wondering why farmers haven't been subject to the same strict rationing.

Stockton (vicinity), California. Mexican agricultural laborers throwing sugar beets into a truck

Well, because that's where the food comes from.

Salinas Valley, California. Large scale, commercial agriculture. This single California county (Monterey) shipped 20,096 carlots of lettuce in 1934, or forty-five percent of all carlot shipments in the United States. In the same year 73.8 percent of all United States carlot shipments were made from Monterey County, Imperial Valley, California (7,797 carlots) and Maricopa County, Arizona (4,697). Production of lettuce is largely in the hands of a comparatively small number of grower-shippers, many of whom operate in two or all three of these Counties. Labor is principally Mexican and Filipino in the fields, and white American in the packing sheds. Many workers follow the harvests from one valley to the other, since plantings are staggered to maintain a fairly even flow of lettuce to the Eastern market throughout the year

At the end of they day, you can't eat your lawn, and in terms of economic importance, agriculture may be only 2% of California's economy, but its the percentage of that economy that people eat. And not just people in California. You can't eat a semiconductor, or intellectual property.

Near King City, California. Large-scale agriculture (peas) and old style California ranch house

Not that there aren't problems of all sorts that this is exhibiting, one being that California in general takes more water to sustain its population than it actual has. Of course, California's agriculture built that population in the first place, for good or ill, and it feeds more than California.

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Lex Anteinternet?

This blog has been around since 2009. In the very first post, we asked the question: "What the heck is this blog about?"

Our answer to the question was: "The intent of this blog is to try to explore and learn a few things about the practice of law prior to the current era. That is, prior to the internet, prior to easy roads, and the like. How did it work, how regional was it, how did lawyers perceive their roles, and how were they perceived?"

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