Australian rice production in thousand tons per year, from 1960 to 2008. These data come from the annual crop reports of The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE).

We talk about drought in California, rainwater capture issues in Colorado, and fresh water troubles in the South East. But, as water expert Peter Gleick pointed out yesterday, we haven’t a clue about what a real water crisis looks like. Australians do. As we discussed during June when we examined Peak Water, Australia has some serious water woes, and the reality of it is playing out in their food production. This is more what it looks like to have a water crisis on your hands. Rice is a water intensive crop, but it can grow just about anywhere. Australia’s history of growing rice started in the 1920s, and the crop flourished during the 1950s through the 1990s when there was above-average rainfall and irrigation water was cheap. Rice production was so great that it became an export crop to Japan. However, it has been grown in typically arid regions, and is clearly unsustainable, especially now in the face of severe drought. Production has dropped from 1.6 million tons in 2000 to a mere 18,000 tons in 2008. …

What It Looks Like When the Water Crisis Slaps You In The Face – Less Food