Dry weather has caused the City of Barcelona to turn to imported water to help meet its needs.  Only in their case, the imported water is coming in ships from Terragona, Spain, a distance of about 56 miles.  More water is expected to arrive from Marseille, France in about a week.  Marseilles is 314 miles from Barcelona and there is no word on what the French are charging for the water.  US consumers regularly pay over $4 million an acre-foot for the privilege of drinking bottled water from France, but that’s retail.  I imagine France cut Spain a deal on the water transfer because they’re neighbors. 

What is interesting is that the environmental community is saying the same thing in Europe that they’re saying here – agriculture uses too much water, implying that the urban sector would be a better place to distribute Spain’s limited water resources.

Why is this important?  Because the excuse in California is that we can import the food we need from other countries if we shift water from agriculture to urban and environmental uses.  But if the attitudes are the same overseas as they are here, there will be no food for anyone to import from anywhere.