Dry Fields, Dirty Water
America’s 20th century experience with water and food perfectly reflected a growing nation and its productive agricultural economy. Citizens agreed on national goals. Legislation was approved. Mammoth public investments were made. The result was that from one end of the country to the other water flowed free and clean from elaborate water works — great western dams, reservoirs, and transport canals, deep Great Plains wells and giant spider-like sprinklers, and from thousands of pumps and miles of pipes.
Water in America’s 20th century was so plentiful, so available, that farmers used what they wanted and most Americans took it for granted.
Click to read the introduction to Choke Point: Index and explore specific cases below.
