But that alfalfa also goes to feed cows, which feed humans.
All that’s grown in CA supports humans. You could get all “America first” with it, which has some merit here, but CA still massively feeds the US.
All that’s grown in CA supports humans. You could get all “America first” with it, which has some merit here, but CA still massively feeds the US.
This can be said about anything, but what matters is whether its is better to do something else to provide the same support.
California only produces 3% of the country's hay. We could just grow a bit more elsewhere to compensate. Ending alfalfa in California wouldn't be a big deal. It's an extremely low value crop.
Meanwhile, to grow this tiny amount of alfalfa we spend more than double all household water use in the entire state. Including swimming pools, toilets, showers, everything.
It's inexplicably foolish.
That is... get the water priced correctly, and let the market sort out ratio of cow alfalfa production to other water priorities...
The only reason we don’t, as far as I can see, is that the demand isn’t there.
Feeding crops to cows is bizarrely wasteful when you look at the big picture. Especially once you look at the subsidies that make meat affordable, the water usage we can no longer afford, the pathogens animal agriculture generates, etc. It seems completely untenable from my perspective. Which is strange to consider at times, because I was once a huge proponent of eating meat.
Dairy cows turn alfalfa into milk and we turn milk into butter, cheese, yogurt, kefir, cream, sour cream, cottage cheese, cream cheese, ice cream, whey, casein, pudding, flan, caramel, crema, etc.