The $34 million gives the idea that the water is worth $34 million, but the water costs of growing Alfalfa (largely to be used in the extremely inefficient animal agriculture industry), are a small fraction of the overall costs. Labor and 23,000 acres of land and seeds and fertilizers etc would be a significantly greater cost contributing to the $34 million value.

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bradleyjg 7 hours ago | parent [-]

My point was that google generates hundreds of billions of dollars from the same water that $34 million in alfalfa. It’s absurd to complain about their usage.

Water use policy is about agriculture, agriculture, and also agricultural. Everything else is a distraction.

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bluefirebrand 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> My point was that google generates hundreds of billions of dollars from the same water that $34 million in alfalfa

Food is more important than whatever google does. :/

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bradleyjg 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Radical Luddite posting on the internet is … something.

	▲	defrost 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It wasn't the Looms / technology they hated - it was being put out of work and discarded.
	▲	bluefirebrand 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		What's your argument here? I would love to hear why you think food is not actually more important than data centers.

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bix6 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

How is everything else a distraction? We are overusing our water budget so every little piece on top is extra impactful.

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loudmax 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Agriculture uses orders of magnitudes more water than data centers. A 50% cut in water use by data centers will have nowhere near the impact of a 5% cut in water use by agriculture. But data centers can generate orders of magnitude more revenue.

Say rain water is leaking into your house from two holes in the roof: one is 1 meter in diameter, the other is 1cm. Any effort you spend plugging the 1cm hole is a distraction from the 1m hole you really need to focus on.

You could make an argument that agriculture is different because we need agricultural products to live. But we don't need those specific products to live (alfalfa, almonds, etc), and they could be grown far more efficiently if water were priced by market rates.

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bix6 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That 1cm leak is going to lead to mold in my house so both need to be addressed.

	▲	xnx 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Maybe imagine your in a canoe with a hole the size of your fist and another hole the size of a pin. Where do you spend your time to keep from sinking?

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lostmsu 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> data centers can generate orders of magnitude more revenue

You can't eat data.

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karahime 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes, just like you can't eat trucks, roads, grocery stores, tractors, combines, crop dusters, grain silos, mills, or the FDA. Any system needs many components, most of which aren't directly consumed by someone.

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lostmsu 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Missing the point. There's absolute bare minimum food that you need to eat regardless of everything else.

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bradleyjg 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Alfalfa isn’t food.

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lostmsu 4 hours ago | parent [-]

It most certainly is. It may not be the food that you like to eat personally.

	▲	verdverm an hour ago \| parent [-]
		certainly second hand food via bovine

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FloorEgg 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You are the one who is missing the point.

	▲	lostmsu 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Am I? What point? In my comment I stated the missed point, yours is entirely devoid of real meaning.

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bradleyjg 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I don’t really know how to rephrase it. It’s a distraction.

This article could have been about shipping alfalfa to the Middle East and Asia, but instead it was about this.

	▲	bix6 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That’s not a distraction. It’s one of the many ways in which data centers are problematic. Why shouldn’t it be talked about as such?