Nice video on the NYT about how Israel is irrigating high-tech desert farming. High food prices have made certain previously unlikely farming profitable.
>
click to play video
>
Source:
Can Israel Find the Water It Needs?
ANDREW MARTIN
NYT: August 9, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/business/worldbusiness/10feed.html
This is exactly why the world “NEEDS” higher fuel prices not lower. Low fuel prices only mean waste, waste and more waste. And in the end who benefits? Let “inflation,” fill the gaps just like it did/does with everything from calculators to baseballs, (they never threw balls into the stands the way they do now, when I was growing up! :-).
Justin
I find it interesting that price wasn’t mentioned as an alternative mechanism for more efficient allocation of water resources.
Like oil, agriculture and water resources are seen as strategic (code for powerful lobbies), and too important to be subject to full cost pricing.
Like oil, this will result in misallocation and an excess of demand over supply. Like oil, those without it will take what they need from those with it if they can, by force if necessary.
“Like oil, agriculture and water resources are seen as strategic”
As they say in the water management trade, water flows upstream towards money.
I think this is an applaudable integration of hard work (americans use wetbacks {for now}), ingenuity and government cooperation.