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Comment by itbeho | Hacker News Reader

And where would we get our fruits and vegetables? And at what cost?

We'd pay more. And? Out of season access to fresh fruits and veg is even more recent a development than dense human settlement in LA.

Yep. When I go to my neighborhood grocery store in the SF bay area, half of the fruits and vegetables tend to be arriving from Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America or Washington state already. The percentage is even higher in the off-season. Put another way: Where do Maine or Texas or Hawaii get fruits and vegetables that aren't local? (And why are we growing rice in drought conditions?)

Also: desalination puts a floor on the cost of water for drinking purposes. Modern desalination techniques are very electricity-bound, though, in terms of cost.

Alfalfa and other animal feed grown in CA due to senior water rights seems even crazy, even relative to California's baseline level of crazy. Whenever I see a restaurant (usually in the Central Valley) which has signs out that they don't serve water on the table by default due to the drought, it's hard to take anything seriously.

Fittingly enough, Mexico has also been suffering a drought, meaning that our unlimited supply of out-of-season tomatoes, coupled with insufficient regulation, is causing huge problems for the general populace.

You seem to view cheap year round access to fresh vegetables of all varieties as some kind of basic right. We are used to that luxury now, but a mere fifty years ago...

Wouldn't it be beautiful to see kids grow their own produce in a very fast, efficient way without herbicides or pesticides. Schools who have some of the best teachers throughout the United States are doing just that with www.TheTowerGardens.com it is an aeroponic/hydroponic system that allows you to grow vertically, so that you can grow a tremendous amount of produce in a small space. Tower Gardens grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs vertically with no soil, just air, water and food base minerals. Tower Garden™ is more nutritious than almost any conventional or organic produce commercially available. Grow in your backyard, year round, and “there is no weeding, tilling, kneeling, or getting dirty!

Would you rather have the rice, but not have any water to cook it in? Or to brush your teeth afterwards? In what sense is that better?

From other places, at a slightly higher cost.

Most food Californians eat (or any American) doesn't come from there to start.

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