Opinion: The new derivatives market in California water: disaster natural resources capitalism at work
The San Joaquin Valley, which can be regarded along with arid urban Southern California, as the table on which this game is to be played, has always rested on two absolute poles: every inch of farmland is for sale; and water runs uphill to money. This derivative market, far from “rationalizing” water distribution in the state, is going to disturb the magnetic field that is the Prime Mover and Original Cause of all economic activity in our region.
-Written by Bill Hatch, who lives in California’s Central Valley and is a member of the Revolutionary Poets Brigade of San Francisco.