Transcript

David Shaw: People need to eat

Certainly bringing people to the table to discuss water issues is a big challenge. Frequently, the reason they are at the table is because they are suffering some kind of pain, either through lack of water or a lawsuit. One of the things that helps the situation is if they come to the table with reasonable expectations. I think Kay said that: what do they need and not what do they want. One thing that hasn't been mentioned very much today though is the need for science as part of that process. I think that if you look at Klamath last year, you have an excellent example of what can happen if science is involved. So that is a very important component along with the attitude that people come there to find a solution and not to express their wants rather than their needs. And I think as we talk about the settlements, we have recognize that there are some consequences with reallocation of water. At no time today did I hear anybody say that food doesn't come from the grocery stores. We still need the agriculture production in this country, people are going to eat, they need to eat. We talk about droughts affecting water supplies for irrigated agriculture; they certainly affect water supplies for rain-fed lands as well. So all those things need to be considered when we look at solutions for the future.

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