451
submitted 11 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Arizona's solar-over-canal project will tackle its major drought issue::undefined

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 11 months ago

Are there not enough areas of the US that get rainfall suitable for growing the needed food?

[-] Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

There probably are, but Saudi Arabia owns a bunch of land in Arizona and decided it was the perfect place to grow alfalfa, a very water intensive crop. That said, some farming does make some sense even in the desert, since it is almost certainly cheaper to have local produce than to need to import everything from places that have an abundance of water, even if that means building canals to water them.

[-] Shihali@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago

The US has lots of land that doesn't require irrigation, but also lots of land that can grow crops if irrigated. Some of that land in California is some of the best farmland in the whole country, growing things that prefer California's Mediterranean climate (similar to parts of Australia's southwest coast).

We have the technology and have had it for a while. But we don't have the laws and habits of dry countries so US water laws are a wasteful mess.

[-] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Almost everything West of the Colorado Rocky mountains is very arid and requires extensive irrigation.

Everything except for the Pacific Northwest, and only the area west of the Cascade mountain range in Oregon and Washington.

this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
451 points (98.7% liked)

Technology

59298 readers
1818 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS