<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">". . . it seems that since water is the <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1236138055_4">limiting factor</span>,
it makes sense to use that water wisely. Since we all need to eat, I'd
rather use that water to grow food than using it for the Hawkins
mega-mall..." Garrett C. <br><br>Humm, the problem here is if you get a plague, a virus, or rats in your crops everyone starves. You also have a huge unemployment line because not everyone can farm and you only need 5% of the population to feed the rest of the population. <br><br>I would suggest you keep farming, but also employ the manager, the builder, the merchant, the cashier, the salesman, the banker, the clerk, the stacker, the cook, the waitress, and the advertiser by having a mall to sell the food you grow and other items the community needs. <br><br>Best Regards,<br><br>Donovan<br><br>--- On <b>Tue, 3/3/09, Garrett Clevenger <i><garrettmc@verizon.net></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;">From: Garrett Clevenger <garrettmc@verizon.net><br>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Palouse Farming: was Hemp...<br>To: vision2020@moscow.com, "Ellen Roskovich"
<gussie443@hotmail.com><br>Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 6:42 PM<br><br><pre>Ellen writes:<br><br>"I thought all the farmers around here relied on rainfall and snowpack for<br>moisture."<br><br><br>Most farmers around here are dryland farmers because we have enough annual<br>precipitation, so they don't need supplemental water to grow wheat, barley,<br>peas and lentils, though they probably would get higher yields if more water<br>were added.<br><br>I have a vegetable farm in Moscow, which requires irrigation. Our well is about<br>60 feet deep, so more than likely it is water that is replenished each year by<br>rain and snowpack. I consider that a more sustainable use of water than that<br>which will be sold to Hawkins, which from what I know is drawn from the deeper<br>aquifer, which is not replenished much.<br><br>If we could grow hemp here, we'd probably have to irrigate. But then again,<br>most farms that grow our food rely on irrigation
systems, particularly in the<br>desert regions of south Idaho, and the Columbia basin in Washington.<br><br>If anybody wants to read a good book on the history of reliance on federal<br>subsidies to develop irrigation districts in our country (of which there are<br>probably more than most people realize), check out "Cadilac Desert" by<br>Marc Reisner. Pretty much no matter what, irrigation is crucial to farmimg, and<br>tax-payers have built those systems. Add that on top of the ecological<br>consequences of water diversion (and transportation and pesticide use!) and<br>it's obvious what we pay for food at the store is a lot less than its true<br>cost.<br><br>The Palouse is lucky to have enough precip to grow crops dryland, but then<br>again, most of the wheat is exported, and that doesn't provide us<br>vegetables. If you eat meat, you need water to care for livestock, too.<br><br>So it seems to me, if you like a diverse diet, it's better to grow
that<br>food locally to reduce the other impacts transporting food long distances<br>causes. That being the case, it seems that since water is the limiting factor,<br>it makes sense to use that water wisely. Since we all need to eat, I'd<br>rather use that water to grow food than using it for the Hawkins mega-mall...<br><br>gclev<br><br>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> http://www.fsr.net <br> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>=======================================================<br></pre></blockquote></td></tr></table><br>