California's Water Problem

While residents of California are forced to conserve water as the state is dealing with a crippling drought, California's growers are making it rain. Author and environmental reporter Mark Hertsgaard explains why agriculture is thriving while everyone else is parched, despite consuming 80 percent of California’s developed water and accounting for only two percent of the state’s GDP.

California is still growing a lot of thirsty crops & a lot of it is for export. They're expanding acreage, making bank, says @markhertsgaard

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) April 6, 2015

Geologically, California is a desert...and we've really got to change our policies and price water appropriately, says @markhertsgaard.

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) April 6, 2015

Here are the amazing @nytimes photos illustrating Cali's drought (& sprawl) that @markhertsgaard just mentioned: http://t.co/NkvfeIAxLU

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) April 6, 2015

This is not about demonizing agriculture, farmers-we want farms to do well. But they must get ahead of the problem, says @markhertsgaard.

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) April 6, 2015