Stance? They are easy to detect. Much easier than shaded turf grass or artificial turf. What I can tell you is that the term “non-functional turf” has entered the language over the previous 3 years in via the regulatory agencies. This term describes areas of turf grass like median strips or decorative turf around shopping centers (the strip mall soul patch bit of green near the entrance or sign).
These areas will likely be excepted in the current legal and regulatory framework, and its important to understand why. Groups like farmers or golf courses have strong advocacy groups going to bat for them in the water rights world. Other groups, like home owners, do not receive the same advocacy when it comes to laws, and often more importantly, agency policy (the interpretation and implementation of law).
So if we ban water use to golf courses, should we ban it to city (or heck, private) private sports fields?
In my personal politics, I’m as anti-grass as they come, unless its deep rooted annual grasses. But in practice there is a bit of nuance to appreciate, with a big part of that being that relative to agriculture, irrigated turfgrass is a nothing burger. Agriculture is far far more heavily subsidized with regards to water use, and far more wasteful. Look just south of pheonix and you see fields and fields of cotton. Southern Arizona is where your lettuce is coming from.
The Yuma area of Arizona only produces lettuce in winter as the Salinas Valley isn’t capable of producing veggies on the level needed for the country that time of year. Other than that, lettuce and most other veggies are from the Salinas Valley 3/4 of the year.
On golf courses, it’s the number of them which is obscene. Also, seeing it’s only the wealthy who are able to use them is another frustrating part. City sports fields are open to everyone while many golf courses have memberships. The amount of water it takes to upkeep a course is wild but doesn’t compare to ag for sure.
A 1/4 lb of beef takes roughly the same amount of water the average American uses showing for more than a month. Which blows my mind on soo many levels.
Water is life and we need to make moves to protect it. Thank for the work you do! Do you think charging cattle farms appropriately for water and removing some golf courses is a good place to start?
A 1/4 lb of beef takes roughly the same amount of water the average American uses showing for more than a month. Which blows my mind on soo many levels.
Interesting point to bring up. On a per calorie basis, lettuce is actually quite impactful with regards to emissions. This is even more so for head lettuce.
I think that its easy to take issue with things that are extremely obvious, like golf courses, because you see them regularly. But if we look at the state wide, nation wide, or global impact of golf courses, or even all turf grass, its basically nothing compared to any commodity food crop.
If you are going to put effort into being outraged, I think its important to try and scale that outrage by where the measurably biggest impacts are.
No outrage on my end, more confusion. Sure, veggies take up water and at scale it adds up. But once it’s understood that 3/4 of all grown crop is for livestock feed, it really puts the drastic impact of meat into perspective though.
I think that’s a great perspective to take. Its also worth considering why our food systems are so carbon/ water intense. A big part of this is about patterns of consumption and that grocery stores want to provide and consumers want to consume an entire pallete of what would only be seasonally available foods year round. What it means is that New York cant provide year round lettuce for New York’s needs, so there is no significant lettuce production in New York. Its an all or nothing approach. It would be completely reasonable to produce lettuce in NY… from June till September.
Lettuce basically has to be refrigerated from the time it gets harvested in say Salinas or Imperial county, or Southern Arizona, until pretty much you put it on a plate and serve it. Its also basically water, takes up a large amount of space for its density, and has relatively few calories and nutrient content beyond some fiber. It also (head lettuce is very bad about this) takes a lot of packaging.
For the American diet, and especially, the American vegetarians diet, to make sense climate sense, its going to have to be seasonally limited in whats available.
Earlier you asked about ‘stance’, which I take as an ask for me to frame this politically, or in regards to my view or outlook. I think whats important to me is to have a clear and practical view of what is, especially if that view is partial, and to know what the approximate boundaries of that view are.
Yea cattle farming, pecans, and cotton are pretty common in Arizona. Though in fairness to southern Arizona, zeroscapping is much more common for residential properties. Golf courses tend to use grey water i believe, but if there is another use for the water then there is some argument for their existence even if they factor into the local economy.
What’s your stance on home lawns and golf courses?
Stance? They are easy to detect. Much easier than shaded turf grass or artificial turf. What I can tell you is that the term “non-functional turf” has entered the language over the previous 3 years in via the regulatory agencies. This term describes areas of turf grass like median strips or decorative turf around shopping centers (the strip mall soul patch bit of green near the entrance or sign).
These areas will likely be excepted in the current legal and regulatory framework, and its important to understand why. Groups like farmers or golf courses have strong advocacy groups going to bat for them in the water rights world. Other groups, like home owners, do not receive the same advocacy when it comes to laws, and often more importantly, agency policy (the interpretation and implementation of law).
So if we ban water use to golf courses, should we ban it to city (or heck, private) private sports fields?
In my personal politics, I’m as anti-grass as they come, unless its deep rooted annual grasses. But in practice there is a bit of nuance to appreciate, with a big part of that being that relative to agriculture, irrigated turfgrass is a nothing burger. Agriculture is far far more heavily subsidized with regards to water use, and far more wasteful. Look just south of pheonix and you see fields and fields of cotton. Southern Arizona is where your lettuce is coming from.
The Yuma area of Arizona only produces lettuce in winter as the Salinas Valley isn’t capable of producing veggies on the level needed for the country that time of year. Other than that, lettuce and most other veggies are from the Salinas Valley 3/4 of the year.
On golf courses, it’s the number of them which is obscene. Also, seeing it’s only the wealthy who are able to use them is another frustrating part. City sports fields are open to everyone while many golf courses have memberships. The amount of water it takes to upkeep a course is wild but doesn’t compare to ag for sure.
A 1/4 lb of beef takes roughly the same amount of water the average American uses showing for more than a month. Which blows my mind on soo many levels.
Water is life and we need to make moves to protect it. Thank for the work you do! Do you think charging cattle farms appropriately for water and removing some golf courses is a good place to start?
Interesting point to bring up. On a per calorie basis, lettuce is actually quite impactful with regards to emissions. This is even more so for head lettuce.
I think that its easy to take issue with things that are extremely obvious, like golf courses, because you see them regularly. But if we look at the state wide, nation wide, or global impact of golf courses, or even all turf grass, its basically nothing compared to any commodity food crop.
If you are going to put effort into being outraged, I think its important to try and scale that outrage by where the measurably biggest impacts are.
Some references:
Lettuce production in Arizona
Climate impacts of lettuce
No outrage on my end, more confusion. Sure, veggies take up water and at scale it adds up. But once it’s understood that 3/4 of all grown crop is for livestock feed, it really puts the drastic impact of meat into perspective though.
I think that’s a great perspective to take. Its also worth considering why our food systems are so carbon/ water intense. A big part of this is about patterns of consumption and that grocery stores want to provide and consumers want to consume an entire pallete of what would only be seasonally available foods year round. What it means is that New York cant provide year round lettuce for New York’s needs, so there is no significant lettuce production in New York. Its an all or nothing approach. It would be completely reasonable to produce lettuce in NY… from June till September.
Lettuce basically has to be refrigerated from the time it gets harvested in say Salinas or Imperial county, or Southern Arizona, until pretty much you put it on a plate and serve it. Its also basically water, takes up a large amount of space for its density, and has relatively few calories and nutrient content beyond some fiber. It also (head lettuce is very bad about this) takes a lot of packaging.
For the American diet, and especially, the American vegetarians diet, to make sense climate sense, its going to have to be seasonally limited in whats available.
Earlier you asked about ‘stance’, which I take as an ask for me to frame this politically, or in regards to my view or outlook. I think whats important to me is to have a clear and practical view of what is, especially if that view is partial, and to know what the approximate boundaries of that view are.
Yea cattle farming, pecans, and cotton are pretty common in Arizona. Though in fairness to southern Arizona, zeroscapping is much more common for residential properties. Golf courses tend to use grey water i believe, but if there is another use for the water then there is some argument for their existence even if they factor into the local economy.