KAF -- Thank you for caring and investigating the issues with an eye for action! I hope you'll be able to work with your farmers and make positive changes! Please, also include a public education campaign -- people need to understand that these issues are critically important, and most people don't even know there are issues. While I agree that change can be hard, and many people may not like paying more for a loaf of bread, what happens if we don't do anything? What happens when widespread irrigation has to be curtailed because the aquifer can no longer support the withdrawal rates (312 cubic km for agriculture alone in 2005 -- think for a minute about how much water that is)? Worst case scenarios say the aquifer could be in serious danger of running dry in as little as 25 years. How much will a loaf of bread cost when the wheat harvest is a fraction of what it is now because there is little water (or topsoil) left? We, as a society, need to look ahead a bit more and accept that we do not live on a planet with limitless resources. There is not unlimited ground water for irrigation, top-soil for growing crops, or even oil for running our tractors. The sooner we realize this, and make adjustments, the better off we'll all be.

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