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California's cotton and rice industries

Cotton and Rice grown in the desert country. Yea, makes a lot of sense.

The California rice paddies go from Sacramento north to at least Marysville/Yuba City. At least the Sacramento River runs thru the region. Oh yeah, one of the highest concentrations of Nile Fever was in that rice growing area.
There are also lots of stone fruit orchards in that area that look quite productive, and require much less water.

The big cotton farms are in the San Joaquin Valley - the south half of the Central Valley. It was basically a desert before irrigation. Not like the Arizona desert, with Saguaro, Cholla and Barrel cactus, but dry as heck, nevertheless. And reverts to desert quickly if not irrigated. I gotta' tell ya', I've never seen any farmers truck older than a couple of years. If they're so poor, how come they aren't all driving Joad-mobiles?

Cotton actually likes desert climates (like Egypt). It needs hot weather AND water, which is why the San Joaquin Valley of California is prime cotton country. It would not grow in large quantities there without Central Valley Project water (led by Bernie Sisk D. Fresno [deceased] and former chairman of the House Ag Committee for 20 years). Rice is grown in the California delta around Sacramento where there is ample water. I am for ending subsidies, but lets get the facts right.