Water is becoming more and more precious as its supply continues to be depleted throughout the world. Much of our water has been used for irrigated agriculture in the past, but as urban areas continue to grow and consume more water, less remains for agricultural use (6, 9, 12). Urban consumption of water often seems wasteful, but urban water rights have tended to take precedence over the water rights of farmers throughout the world in recent history, and there is no reason to expect this trend to change (12). In addition, environmental concerns are also keeping the supply of water from growing and in some cases the water supply may decrease where environmental restoration is implemented (1). Ultimately the agriculture industry will be limited by the amount of available water while urban areas continue to consume an increasingly larger proportion.
The effects of this prediction on humanity and the effects of this prediction on the practice of subtropical gardening will be covered on this page.
About this page
This page has been prepared as part of a Current Topics in Horticulture course at Washington State University. All content by Ian Barclay, May 2001.
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