In the Race
Now, here, you see, it takes all the blogging I can do to keep in the same place.
If I want to get somewhere else, I must blog twice as fast as that!
You see, I'm in
the Red Queen's Race...
H2O Means Life In Australia
By Janet Evans
Sunday, Oct 12 2008, 09:21 PM
Farmer John Magill in southeastern Australia inspects a dried up dam on his farm. Over half of
Australia's farmland is in drought. The drought has also seen a rise is farmer suicides in rural Australia,
with the suicide rate among farm workers being double that of the regular population.
(Photo by Ian Waldie/Getty Images)10/06
Australian farmers are drowning---in drought. Their land has been drying up year after year, to the point that they actually trade water. Have you ever heard of that before? Trading water is a national market in Australia.
As always with supply and demand, there is money to be concerned about. So we have farmers, with land, the driest continent on the planet, no water, high prices, high stress…
For farmer Malcolm Holm, water now is just like a new shovel or tractor — he has to buy it.The amount of water he is allowed to take from nearby Murrumbidgee River has dwindled to nothing for the past three years because of Australia's crippling drought. And so, except for rain he can catch and store himself, he needs to buy water for his 1,000 acres at Finley in New South Wales state, where he grows crops to feed his 600 dairy cows."It's no different to buying a ton of grain or a ton of fertilizer," Holm said. "It's just another commodity."
[...]
"In essence, what the water trade does is make irrigators really focus on the economic value of their water and using it more efficiently," Holm said. "If you can't produce a good crop for the cost of the water, you're better off selling it to someone who can. If the figures add up, you buy it."Holm is anxious. The price right now is too high for him and he is watching his pastures die while he waits for a turn in the market or a drop of rain.
Read the complete article on MSNBC HERE
Also, Farmers Suicide Rates Double National Average
