Water policy: The future of our rivers is decided in Chicago too

Abstract

Agricultural « futures » are exchanged daily in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group as in Paris, in order to alleviate some risks for the farmers, an objective shared with agricultural insurances or crop diversifications. It is among these varied tools that the place of irrigation must be reconsidered. This implies that any change of either any hazard concerning the farms or any tools to fight them (from the change of the Common Agricultural Policy to the spread of new financial derivatives) is likely to imply consequences on the irrigated surfaces and on the water volumes used for irrigation. The dispersion of the irrigated areas may also be changed, with non negligible consequences on the environment and the land settlement.