Department of Agriculture

[Jester]

But firstly, it seems your looking at the picture of crop failures VS payout, as opposed to crop failures = raising prices for food = higher cost for everyone doing damage to an economy already in a recession VS the cost of the plant.

Surely a direct subsidy is a cheaper way to counteract the problems of rising food prices? Or, dare I touch the third rail, just lower the tariffs on foreign agricultural production?

Desalinization is not really commercially viable at present. If it was, we'd see businesses doing it for profit. To solve exceptional droughts, you'd need spare capacity. Adding to that the pipeline problem, I think this would be prohibitively expensive. Now, for the future? I'm sure we'll start doing this sometime, as water stocks dwindle, and desalinization tech improves. (And droughts become more frequent, depending on the climate scenario.) I'd be interested to see it costed out, but I doubt this is feasible.

-Jester