Most water saving tips are aimed at households. In the US the EPA has even mandated low flow shower shower heads. However, 80% of fresh water is used by farmers who pay little to nothing for it. Farmers are not your mom and pop operations from fairytales. These are multi-million dollar enterprises, some of which specially grow water intensive crops like almonds in drought prone areas.

Why should normal households have to go without nice showers, have shittier toilets (pun intended), and worse lawns? All to make a dent in the 20% of water used by households, while ignoring the free to highly subsidized 80% of water being used by multimillionaire farm owners and agribusinesses.

It’s time for households to stand up for our showers, toilets and lawns. Let us have our comforts. If it costs us a few almond farms that don’t get planted in the desert it’s really not a big deal. If we have to pay a bit more to better collect and store water that’s also completely doable. Environmentalists should focus on farmers water practices not individuals if they want to save water.

Notes: 1. Almond Farming in CA takes up 13% of the state’s water supply. Toilets, showers, and drinking takes roughly 10%. 2. Improvements to collection, storage and transportation of water should be made.
3. Charging a little more for water to make infrastructure better is reasonable.