My parents live near the San Joaquin valley and I have seen the devastating consequences of the recent drought, which is now over. But the source of the problem is that people have chosen to farm and build massive, inefficient cities in a desert. This country over-produces agricultural products on a massive scale, depressing prices and encouraging waste, overconsumption, and environmental degradation. Farmers in California sow four crops per year on the same land in some cases, while farmers in the upper Midwest might sow one and even leave fields fallow every few years to recuperate. The Bible is very specific about letting the land rest, but I don't hear the hue and cry from those who take the Bible literally. Years of overproduction in California has emptied aquifers that were filled over millions of years and now they want to continue their rapacious practices by diverting water from snow melt in neighboring states that God intended to feed the ecosystems of those watersheds. And while we are beating up on the farmers, let's not let the urban elites off the hook. If you build a city in the desert, you don't get to spray water all over your grass that was transplanted from a mountain meadow environment. Having lived in LA, I was appalled at all the sprinkler systems going off every morning, spraying all over driveways and keeping lawns greener than you see in wetter environments in the East and Midwest. We should not encourage more of this bad behavior. What will California do when it has used up the snow melt from neighboring states? No, they should adjust their practices, using appropriate landscaping in the cities and raising different crops that are appropriate to the dry valleys of California. I will happily pay double for a can of stewed tomatoes.