For you regular readers, I apologize, it has been a while.
I came across a hydrogeology comic strip today. It has to do with the a current tug-o-war over water from the Colorado River. Historically, water from the Colorado River has been sufficient to make farms out of desert and provide water for the many urban metropolis areas in Southern California, Denver and everywhere in between. According the the strip, the Colorado river provides water for 30 million people. Imagine water for all of Canada coming from one river!
Anyhow, as the urban areas have expanded (and continue to expand), they need more water. With few other options, urban municipalities are paying the farmers for their water. By agreeing to give up their water, they essentially pay farmers not to farm so much. Farmers get guaranteed income for the part of their land they are not farming.
It seems to work out pretty good for both. People in urban areas continue to not worry about water. Farmers get payed to work less (apparently farming is a pretty grueling occupation). They get guaranteed income (at a lesser rate).
The price of their crops apparently has gone way up and they are thinking they want out, but are the crop values increasing because of having less crops from the buy out? If they back out of the agreement and everyone grows more, might the price go back down?
