Growing up in Nebraska,

Ive seen how water brings life to the huge fields of crops, that feed America and the world, and I've seen the changes as pivot irrigation systems suck the irreplacable water out of the Ogallala Aquifer, the largest aquifer in the US. At the current rate, 70 percent of the aquifer will be depleted by 2060, according to a study released last year by Kansas State University.

Oil may seem like the most valuable commodity of the American midsection, but it’s not. Take away water from the Ogallala and you take away life itself. Depopulation, slow now, would accelerate, even beyond the Dust Bowl exodus of the 1930s. This is not idle speculation. Even those in the fact-denial camp of climate change, people who get their science from Rush Limbaugh, know that the Ogallala is being sucked dry. Shallower parts of the aquifer are now empty in parts of the Texas Panhandle.

It would be different if this valuable water was being used to feed the world's people, but a huge portion is just being wasted, on the thirstiest crop, corn, that is being turned into ethanol, using more energy to create than it produces. And, the corn/land that is wasted on ethanol drives up food prices in nearly all other areas, including meat and grain, causing 'food price inflation'. Why, you say? The Bush administration mandated the policy to keep the Farm Belt 'in the fold', and added them to their base in the deep south. Voila', a coalition that couldn't be broken when it was time to start a war or change the banking rules.

Now, we're stuck with the mandates and the most valuable irreplacable resource of the heartland is being squandered, cuz the worthless politicians don't want to lose some votes. Sickening, but typical of the right wing destruction of our country, for the enrichment of a few.