[zbentley]

> You irrigate those with water that's fit to drink

To be able to irrigate even a fraction of the US’s crops with potable water, we’d have to build some massive infrastructure to purify, store, and deliver that water. Existing nonpotable infrastructure would be difficult to reuse for this purpose. Doing that would take years and cost billions.

Industrial agriculture is not like a backyard garden; the water infrastructure for irrigation is very different from the infrastructure for drinking water.