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California farmers are struggling to sell grapes as demand for wine drops

389 points · 987 comments · randycupertino

  1. rayiner · · focus · HN ↗

    [dead]

    1. OkayPhysicist · · focus · HN ↗
      Huh? We've got the best farmland in the US, possibly the world. It'd be a terrible shame not to take advantage of it.
      1. rayiner · · focus · HN ↗
        It has no water. That’s why it was worthless to Mexico before the U.S. annexed it and the Army Corps of Engineers terraformed it.
        1. OkayPhysicist · · focus · HN ↗
          You're confusing SoCal and the Central Valley here. Southern California (LA, San Diego, the Mojave Desert) doesn't have enough water. The Central Valley, fed by the Sacramento River from the Sierras and Cascades, and then extended south with canals, has plenty of water for agriculture. In fact, it was quite prone to flooding before we engineered the water shed.

          All of which is irrelevant to the wine conversation, because the relatively dry climate is exactly what makes the Napa and Livermore valleys some of the best in the world to grow grapes. You've got good soil, dry summers allowing for control over how much water the grapes get that make them grow more flavorful, and very few frosts. The fact that the region gets almost all of their rainfall during the winter also helps avoid the grapes going to mold.

          1. trollbridge · · focus · HN ↗
            There are farms near Sacramento airport in a “reversed irrigation district.

            They have to pump water OUT of their fields and pay for the privilege of doing so as opposed to pumping it in from an irrigation canal.

            Nothern California has no shortage of water whatsoever, and indeed it’s a regular news item whether or not to divert a few million extra gallows into the ocean to sustain some variety of fish that likes to swim around in the delta.

            1. opinion-is-bad · · focus · HN ↗
              Just for some context, a million gallons of water is about three feet covering one acre. Almonds use four per year. There are individual farms in the California delta using three orders of magnitude more per year.
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