Aviva Shen of ClimateProgress notes a distinct lack of progress in programs designed to encourage farmers to conserve water. Shen points us to a New York Times story by Ron Nixon, “Farm Subsidies Leading to More Water Use,” which gives us the inside skinny:
Millions of dollars in farm subsidies for irrigation equipment aimed at water conservation have led to more water use, not less, threatening vulnerable aquifers and streams.
From Wyoming to the Texas Panhandle, water tables have fallen 150 feet in some areas — ranging from 15 percent to 75 percent — since the 1950s, scientists say, because the subsidies give farmers the incentive to irrigate more acres of land. Other areas, including several Midwestern states, have also been affected.
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program, first authorized in the 1996 farm bill, was supposed to help farmers buy more efficient irrigation equipment — sprinklers and pipelines — to save water.
But the new irrigation systems have not helped conserve water supplies, studies show. And researchers believe that the new equipment may be speeding up the depletion of groundwater supplies, which are crucial to agriculture and as a source of drinking water.
A skeptic might suggest that the law of unintended consequences tends to operate with maximal efficiency when you give people money to fulfill a goal (your goal, of course) that happens to be the opposite of their goal. Farmers, shockingly enough, are rarely interested in conservation. But they are interested in making money. And so, when you effectively bribe them to use less water, it’s not surprising that they figure out how to use the bribe to allow them to use more.
But the corruption doesn’t end there. Do-gooders find that if you give people money, they like you, as long as you keep giving them money. In fact, if you help them get enough money, they might help you get some money as well. And so conservationists, to win friends and influence people—and to enjoy the life of a DC player—end up paying farmers to consume more water rather than less, so that farmers will support subsidies for “green” energy. Surprised? Hey, there’s a reason those country boys are always carrying pitchforks.
