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J-WAFS Food & Water NewsMarch 2017

In this issue...

J-WAFS highlight: Estimating the Benefits to Strengthening WaterMarkets in CaliforniaMIT newsUpcoming MIT eventsBoston-area water and food eventsFunding and other opportunities

J-WAFS Highlight

Estimating the Benefits to Strengthening Water Markets inCalifornia

Water scarcity presents one of the most serious global challenges in the context of rising pressures fromincreasing population and uncertain climate change scenarios. Because of declining freshwater suppliesand difficulty accessing limited resources, efficient allocation and use become ever more critical.Rethinking water management will become a crucial need for many countries around the world,especially regions that experience prolonged drought, like Africa, Australia, and closer to home,California.

In today’s water management practices, inefficiencies abound, especially in California, where waterallocations are based on historical rights and usage. This approach to distributing scarce waterresources is not responsive to changing conditions and needs, with negative consequences.

At MIT, a J-WAFS-funded project is focusing on these concerns by addressing markets for waterregulation, recognizing Australia’s success with water management in the Murray-Darling Basin. TheMurray-Darling Basin Plan sets environmentally sustainable limits on water withdrawals and developsefficient water trading regimes across the Basin. Although California’s water systems, built around manyinterconnected watersheds and infrastructure, are more complex, developing water markets may offerthe best strategy to efficiently allocate water in an environment where drought and shortages arecommon.

Nick Hagerty, a fifth-year PhD student in the Department of Economics at MIT is working with ChrisKnittel, the George P. Shultz Professor of Applied Economics in the Sloan School of Management andthe Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, to study a potential solution tothese challenges.

With research seed funding support from J-WAFS, their project aims to understand the economicbenefits – and key policy barriers – to establishing robust and widespread water markets inCalifornia. With the growing severity of water shortages, water allocation management and governanceare in serious need of reform, and state policy makers are warming to the idea of implementing amarket-based system.

This is a matter of particular resonance for Hagerty, as he explained some of the issues most people donot fully grasp about water in California.

The great irony about California is that while it is the single greatest producer of the nation’s domesticfood crops, it is in reality a desert, made fertile through the development of extensive infrastructure thatdiverts massive amounts of water in order to keep the land continuously productive. Yet the last fiveyears has seen the worst drought in 500 years, and despite recent heavy rains and the refilling ofreservoirs, severe drought is expected to recur.

Eighty percent of surface water withdrawals go to agriculture alone, and not necessarily to high-valuecrops. In addition, farmers pay a lot less for water than other users. In fact, the price discrepanciesbetween what farmers pay compared to what commercial users pay per acre-foot of water arestaggering. According to Hagerty, “commercial customers in San Diego pay more than $2000 per acre-foot of water, while just 90 miles away in the Imperial Valley, farmers pay only $20 for the same amount.”

It has been an ongoing concern that farms use so much water, sometimes wastefully. One approach tothis is price readjustment, with the argument that raising the price should solve the problem. But sincefarmers have long-standing legal water rights that have been set at the irrigation district level, it’s not asimple matter of fixing the price to better manage overuse. In theory, markets offer an alternative way forprices to naturally work themselves out, benefiting everyone through mutually beneficial trade: farmerswith surplus water selling to others in deficit. However, California’s bureaucratic regulatory systemmakes it too expensive to buy and sell water, and transferring water entitlements is fraught withbureaucracy. Without that option, farmers are not incentivized to conserve.

Efficient management of limited water supplies is essential to support economic activity as well asproviding for the basic needs of residents. Without markets, there are few options beyond implementingconservation. Conservation measures are imposed on particular water uses, for instance not allowingpeople to water their lawns, forcing farmers to let fields go fallow, etc., and impose significant costs tosociety. Inefficient water management also has important ecological consequences, for exampledeclining survival rates of salmon due to excessive water withdrawals from rivers.

Although water market trading has increased steadily over the last 30 years, it is still a very small fractionof the total water transactions in the state. Furthermore, the markets are not well-functioning. Accordingto Hagerty, “in an efficient market, water use decisions would be totally independent of initial [water]allocations, since farmers would sell extra water or buy more water as needed to grow the mostprofitable crop. Instead we find that in years when farmers receive more water allocations than average,they also end up using more water.”

Given the concern that the current system has been unsustainable, more people in California want theregulations changed to allow for easier water entitlement transfers. Many believe that by putting a priceon water, a market system would be the right way to deal with rising and inefficient use of waterresources and the conflicts that result. This is especially important in efforts to reduce the economy’svulnerability to an increasingly unpredictable climate. Knittel and Hagerty’s work is important and welltimed because the benefits of a water market need first to be evaluated and quantified.

By understanding what the policy barriers are that have made it so difficult in California, and quantifyingtotal potential economic benefits should those policy barriers be removed, they can set that as abenchmark. Attributing benefits to particular policies will allow better informed policy discussions. All ofthis entails differentiating the value of water for different segments of the population: agricultural users,urban users, and commercial users. In the first few months of their project they have created the firstcompilation of surface water allocations in California over the past 35 years. They are also evaluatingwhich barriers are most important, for instance, moving water across the complex infrastructure andecological conditions of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Aerial view of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta. (California Department of Water Resources)

Most surprising to them, according to Hagerty, was how high the transaction costs are in comparison tothe actual transaction prices for water sold across the delta. Preliminary results already show that waterallocation increases lead to more revenue for farmers in water-scarce regions than for those in water-rich areas (given the same amount of allocation increases), leading them to conclude that a market inwhich water-rich farmers sell to water-scarce farmers would make everyone better off.

California is one of many regions of the world facing growing challenges around water scarcity.Successful development of water markets there can help inform the potential in many other parts of theworld for water markets to improve resource management, reduce conflicts, and enhance well-being.

MIT News

MIT PhD student Emily Tow wins Student Best PaperAward at the AMTA/AWWA’s 2017 Conference

Emily Tow, MIT PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, last month won one of two "Student Best PaperAwards" for her paper and talk on the "Effect of Pressure on Alginate Fouling in Forward Osmosis" at the2017 Membrane Technology Conference and Exposition (MTC17) held in Long Beach, CA. Theconference was presented by the American Membrane Technology Association (AMTA) and theAmerican Water Works Association (AWWA). Said Tow: “several people expressed that they had always been suspicious of the claims related to theeffect of pressure on fouling propensity. One person told me that I had changed his mind.” Emily’s areas of expertise are in membrane fouling, heat transfer, and desalination and water treatment.Advised by J-WAFS director John Lienhard, she is affiliated with the Rohsenow-Kendall Heat TransferLaboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She has won several other awards and haspublished several papers. Her thesis title is "Organic Fouling in Osmotic Membrane SeparationProcesses."

Newly released evaluation report by CITE on post-harvesttechnologies in Uganda

The MIT Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation(CITE) has just released a new report evaluating variouspost-harvest storage technologies sold as a part of a specialoperation run by the World Food Programme in Uganda tobetter understand which technologies are best poised forscaleup. Read more about it on MIT News. Details of thestudy design and findings are available on the CITE website.

Supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), CITE is the first programdedicated to developing methods for product evaluation in global development. Led by aninterdisciplinary team of faculty, staff, and students at MIT, it draws upon diverse expertise to evaluateproducts using a 3-S methodology — suitability, scalability, and sustainability — to develop a deepunderstanding of what makes products successful in emerging markets.

Upcoming MIT Events

Dr. Joanne Kong, Food For Thought: How a Greener DietCan Transform You and the Planet Dr. Joanne Kong has been praised throughout the country as an advocate for plant-based nutrition. This

presentation addresses the critical impacts that animal agriculture and meat consumption have upon the

environment, the sustainability of our plant, and our health. RSVP here.

Hosted by: MIT Sloan School of Management, Sustainability InitiativeCo-hosted with Net ImpactWhen: Thursday, Mar 9, 11:45AM - 12:45PMWhere: Building E62, Room 250 (100 Main St, Cambridge, MA)

CEE / J-WAFS Water and Food Security Seminar

About the seminar series: Presented by Chandra A. Madramootoo (visiting professor, Department ofCivil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), and visiting scholar, J-WAFS), the purpose of this seminarseries is to provide senior undergraduate and graduate students in CEE, as well as other MIT students,a background on some of the challenges of global food security, particularly in relation to issues aroundwater management engineering and agro-ecologic conditions. Big Data and Digital AgriculturePlatforms is the second seminar in the series. More Info on the seminar series

Event Organizer: Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) and J-WAFSDate: Thursday March 9, noon-2pm (light lunch provided)Location: Room 1-242

MIT Water Club Lecture Series: Talk by Dr. SimonChoong

Young Leaders in the Industry — Introduction to the International DesalinationAssociation's (IDA) Young Leaders Program (YLP) The International Desalination Association’s Young LeadersProgram (YLP) allows emerging desalination leaders to connect,advance their careers, and promote interest in desalination aroundthe world. The goals of this exciting initiative are to help promoteopportunities in the industry, support career advancement, andprovide a forum for communication and the exchange of ideasamong young professionals and the industry at large. Come joinSimon Choong, the Regional Coordinator in North America, to learnmore about the opportunities with YLP.

Hosted by: MIT Water ClubWhen: Thursday, March 9th, 4-5 pmWhere: Building 4, Room 231

MIT Water Club Lunch and Learn Series: Talk by AnnaRogers

Over-extraction from groundwater and earthquakes — Tools for Water DataRecovery, Publication and Collaboration

As part of the MIT Water Club's monthly lunch and learn series, this month's seminar will be given byAnna Rogers on her research regarding over-extraction of groundwater in the role of triggeringearthquakes.

Hosted by: MIT Water ClubWhen: Tuesday, March 21st, 12-1 pmWhere: Building 5, Room 233

MIT Water Night The MIT Water Club's 5th Annual MIT Water Night will be held on March 22nd, the same day as WorldWater Day. Water Night brings together researchers and industry professionals in the Boston area for aresearch showcase and provides a platform for individuals and groups to present their latestachievements in this field.

Individual researchers and groups are invited to submit abstracts for their research poster presentation.Prizes are awarded for the best presentations in each category. Please register for the event in order toparticipate (whether or not you are presenting). Food and Refreshments will be provided.

Hosted by: MIT Water ClubWhen: Thursday, March 22nd, 5-8 pmWhere: Walker Memorial (Building 50), MIT

CEE / J-WAFS Water and Food Security Seminar Series

Upcoming seminar in April: Frontiers in Groundwater Irrigation

With erratic rainfall patterns, more frequent drought occurrences, and the poor management anddistribution of water in large publicly owned irrigation systems, farmers are drilling their own deeptubewells or shallow boreholes, and relying more on groundwater for irrigation. There is little informationon aquifer characteristics and recharge rates, as well as inadequate ground water monitoring programs. Unsustainable groundwater pumping and aquifer depletion have already jeopardized irrigated agriculturein many irrigated regions such as the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the High Aquifer Plains of the US, and theNorth China Plains. The seminar will discuss some of the remedial technical and institutional measuresbeing put in place to make better use of limited ground water resources for food security. See posterhere.

Hosted by: Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) and J-WAFSWhen: Thursday, April 6th, 12-2pm (light lunch provided)Where: Building 1, Room 242

Boston-area Water and Food Events

Future of Food: Urban Ag + Ag Tech

How to feed a growing population with diminished resources amid climate change is arguably the mostimportant question of our time—making agriculture innovation among the most watched areas of thefood industry today. Food Sol will host a panel discussion on urban agriculture and agriculture tech. Free, open to the public, no registration required. Full details here.

When: March 8th, 5:00-6:30 PMWhere: Babson College, Wellesley, MA (Needham-Wellesley Room in Olin Hall)

Will Work 4 Food Job and Internship Fair

Boston has a network of exceptional companies that are revolutionizing food. Meet them face-to-face atBranchfood's Will Work 4 Food Job and Internship fair, where you'll discover local leaders with careeropportunities in some exciting startups and businesses in food or foodtech. This is a FREE event forcurrent students, recent graduates, and professionals of all levels. Participating companies includeClover Food Lab, Spoiler Alert, AVA, The Purple Carrot and many many more. RSVP here.

When: March 14th 11AM-2PMWhere: The Kitchen at the Boston Public Market, 6 Congress Street Boston MA 02203

5th Annual Massachusetts Water Forum

Waste Not, Want Not: Water & Wastewater in Our Commonwealth

The 5th Annual Massachusetts Water Forum, hosted by the Foundation for a Green Future, Inc. in honorof World Water Day, will carry through on this year's theme of water and wastewater as theCommonwealth prepares for numerous challenges ahead. The forum will encourage all participants topose questions, add their insights, and think about new designs, systems and resource uses. Get moredetails and register here.

Hosted by: Foundation for a Green Future, Inc.When: Tuesday, March 21, 1-6pmWhere: BSA Space, 290 Congress Street, Boston

Flower to Fork: Native Plants, Farms, and FoodSymposium

What role do native plants and their pollinators play in the stability of our food and other agriculturalsystems? Join the New England Wild Flower Society for a day-long symposium to discuss theinteractions between native plants, pollinators, and food crops. Learn how farmers are using nativeplants to increase their crop production, what programs are available to growers to help with native plantinstallation, and how you can create beautiful gardens that also support pollinators. Learn more andregister here.

Hosted by: New England Wild Flower SocietyWhen: March 25th, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PMWhere: Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA

Food Tank Summit Boston

Food Tank, in collaboration with the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts Universityand Oxfam America, is excited to announce the inaugural Boston Food Tank Summit. This two-dayevent will feature more than three dozen different speakers from the food and agriculture field.Researchers, farmers, chefs, policy makers, government officials, and students will come together fordiscussions on diverse topics. The theme for the Summit is Investing in Discovery. See the full speakerlineup and get tickets (Use promo code 50off to save $50 off your ticket.)

When: April 1-2Where: Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy

Tufts University Future of Food and Nutrition Conference

Mark your calendars for the 10th annual multidisciplinary Future of Food and Nutrition Graduate StudentResearch Conference, hosted by the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at TuftsUniversity. This year, the keynote address will be delivered by Helena Bottemiller Evich, senior food andagriculture reporter at POLITICO, on the topic of the future of US food policy. Check out the conferencewebsite for more details, and stay tuned for an announcement when registration opens online.

Hosted by: Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts UniversityWhen: April 7th (welcome reception, 4:30-6:00PM), April 8th (8:30AM-5:00PM, reception to follow)Where: Boston Marriott Copley Place, Boston, MA

Funding and Other Opportunities

Legatum Center’s Summer 2017 Seed Grant Application

The MIT Legatum Center’s Summer 2017 Seed Grant Application closes on Thursday, March 9that 6pm. The mission of the Legatum Center’s Seed Grant program is to support MIT students whoare exploring opportunities for launching innovation-driven ventures and creating sustainablesocial impact in the developing world. Seed grant awards may be applied to travel expensesincurred to conduct primary market research and pilot product and service prototypes in thecountry of the venture. Deadline: Thursday, March 9th by 6:00 PM. Apply here

Bureau of Reclamation's More Water Less Concentrate —Stage 1 Competition

The Bureau of Reclamation is seeking innovative solutions to expand usable water supplies bymaximizing fresh water production from inland desalination systems in a cost effective andenvironmentally-sound manner. Award Amount: $150,000. Deadline: March 13, 2017. More info here.

Academic Internship: Critical Studies on Food Systemsand Sustainability in Italy - Summer 2017 This is a five-week full immersion program taking place in Rome was designed and created incollaboration with the University of Massachusetts Amherst, offering courses in topics such as foodculture; nutrition, food waste, and others. Visit here for further details and instructions on how toapply. Application Deadline: March 15th

ESI 2017 funding opportunity

MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative call for proposals for education grants.

2017 CURRICULUM GRANTS: $500,000 is available for undergraduate curriculum activities inenvironment and sustainability. MIT faculty are encouraged to apply for funds to create new classes,adapt existing classes, and generate innovative teaching and learning opportunities in environment andsustainability. Full proposals are due March 17, 2017 by 5:00 pm. See here for detailed information.

Safi Organics seeks students to join their team

Safi Organics (aka Takachar), one of the 2016 Rabobank-MIT Food & Ag Prize winners, is seeking

interested students to join their team. Short (3-month) full-time paid summer internships are potentially

available. If interested, please contact trashiscash@mit.edu.

Most fertilizers today are produced in large-scale, capital-intensive units mostly in Europe, China, and

the Americas, and then shipped to the emerging markets. As a result, a rural farmer in Kenya pays 2-3

times the world price for fertilizer due to shipping and distribution costs. Safi Organics utilizes MIT

technology to downsize and decentralize the fertilizer production process in emerging markets, making it

feasible to set up localized production plants in rural villages.

NWRI Clarke Prize for Excellence in Water Research —nominations due April 15, 2017

The National Water Research Institute (NWRI) is accepting nominations for the Twenty-Fourth AnnualAthalie Richardson Irvine Clarke Prize for excellence in water research. The Prize, which includes$50,000 and a medallion, rewards scholarly and practical achievements in water research. Establishedin 1994, the Clarke Prize recognizes outstanding individuals who are significantly and activelycontributing toward any of the following areas: the discovery, development, improvement, and/orunderstanding of issues associated with water quality, quantity, technology, or public policy.

The deadline to submit nominations is April 15, 2017. The award will be presented at the ClarkePrize Conference and Award Ceremony, to be held October 19-20, 2017 in Irvine, California. Moreinformation about the Clarke Prize nomination process, including the nomination guidelines, reviewcriteria, and application cover sheet, may be found at www.nwri-usa.org/nominations.htm.

Copyright © 2017 MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab, All rights reserved.

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