Monday, March 23, 2009

Drought effects in China and California

I read today how Beijing may have to be moved to another location because of 10 years of droughts in the area that supplies Beijing with all it's water.

A few weeks ago I found out that California's farmers will be given only 15% of the water they are requesting this year because of years of droughts. This may cause an extreme reduction in Farm products out of California and affect the price of the types of food grown in California throughout the U.S. and the world. Since 25% of the food grown in the United States is grown in California this will be definitely create a price increase within the United States. Though the people in the United States can afford to import foods grown in other countries to make up for the difference, other countries might find they are either short of some items or find they have become much more expensive in those countries for locals to buy where these items are grown.

These are some of the things grown in California: strawberries, apples, almonds, peaches, alfalpha, hay, lettuce of all kinds, oranges, cherries, artichokes, brocolli, etc. etc. etc. Also, since most of the growing areas of California have 4 growing seasons per year this will be at least 4 seasons this year that there will only be 15% of the normal water farmers have most years.

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