<story><title>California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State&apos;s Next Gold Mine</title><url>https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/02/16/585409126/eureka-california-grown-coffee-is-becoming-the-states-next-gold-mine</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>notatoad</author><text>&amp;gt; you will find out what should actually be grown.&lt;p&gt;the problem with that is &amp;quot;what should actually be grown&amp;quot; has different answers depending on whether you value profit or feeding people.</text></item><item><author>jseliger</author><text>People and especially agricultural users don&amp;#x27;t pay anything like the true cost of water: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;marginalrevolution.com&amp;#x2F;marginalrevolution&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;the-california-water-shortage-again.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;marginalrevolution.com&amp;#x2F;marginalrevolution&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;the...&lt;/a&gt;. Charge everyone the same cost per liter or gallon or 1,000 gallons and you will find out what should actually be grown.</text></item><item><author>phil21</author><text>Why is California so fascinated on agriculture which is extremely water intensive?  Coffee is up there with Almonds as far as I understand the situation.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fmihaila</author><text>&amp;gt; the problem with that is &amp;quot;what should actually be grown&amp;quot; has different answers depending on whether you value profit or feeding people.&lt;p&gt;It can only be a choice between making a profit and feeding people &lt;i&gt;at break-even&lt;/i&gt; (feeding people while losing money is not sustainable). Beyond that, the profit signal carries useful information about what the people being fed would rather eat, while keeping in line with what is economically and environmentally viable.&lt;p&gt;The problem with the current situation is that water is mispriced, and mispricing, regardless of whether it favours suppliers or consumers, makes it unsustainable in the long run.</text></comment>
<story><title>California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State&apos;s Next Gold Mine</title><url>https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/02/16/585409126/eureka-california-grown-coffee-is-becoming-the-states-next-gold-mine</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>notatoad</author><text>&amp;gt; you will find out what should actually be grown.&lt;p&gt;the problem with that is &amp;quot;what should actually be grown&amp;quot; has different answers depending on whether you value profit or feeding people.</text></item><item><author>jseliger</author><text>People and especially agricultural users don&amp;#x27;t pay anything like the true cost of water: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;marginalrevolution.com&amp;#x2F;marginalrevolution&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;the-california-water-shortage-again.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;marginalrevolution.com&amp;#x2F;marginalrevolution&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;the...&lt;/a&gt;. Charge everyone the same cost per liter or gallon or 1,000 gallons and you will find out what should actually be grown.</text></item><item><author>phil21</author><text>Why is California so fascinated on agriculture which is extremely water intensive?  Coffee is up there with Almonds as far as I understand the situation.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>YokoZar</author><text>In this case, we aren&amp;#x27;t feeding people.  We&amp;#x27;re feeding cows.&lt;p&gt;We&amp;#x27;re also running into frequent water crises where politicians ask people to shower less while we dump 90% of the state&amp;#x27;s water on the ground.</text></comment>