What dos the forum think about introducing water contracts as a commodity to be priced and traded on the CME

The way I see it, people in California can price and allocate water according to price, given there is a supply, just needs to be allocated

But if you live in an arid part of the country then there is not much incentive for agriculture to bid on scarce water as somebody will out bid ag production

We live in an area with abundant water supply both underground wells and rain fall, so not much need to buy water. But if some body bought huge amounts to affect the water level in the Great lakes then we would have a problem

As it stands today we have rules to allocate fresh water taken from lakes and rivers, so that we are assured of a supply

As I see it, this is mostly a California water allocation thing. Urban areas will buy water and then tax the amount used to water the lawn or flush the toilet, while Ag production is out bid to a higher bidder. There has been constant friction to farmers use  of large amounts water for irrigation while some charge extra for a glass of water. The urban area wants a system to take water away from growing food in California

Thus this new idea is being floated as a trial balloon