Good Water to Farm, Lethal Water to Drink

While the UN has stated explicitly, "water will become the dominant global issue this century," and its scarcity could threaten the stability of world populations, California has already begun to feel the crunch.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the state is already trying to manage the "future water wars in California." A public health crisis is already underway for hundreds of rural Californian communities whose public drinking water is loaded with unsafe levels of contaminants. About a million people are affected.

Like many reserves, the water on which these communities depend lay deep underground. But in this case, years of farming, often with heavy chemicals, has rendered the resource worse than useless: the water is dangerous, prone to causing cancer and kidney disease.

It is safe to say that California has a stable legislature and social mechanics to address the issue, however, this case shouts out as a case where unchecked farming can damage fresh wells.

Are farmers around the world acting accordingly?

More to come.