Dive Brief:
- To assist California farmers dealing with the state's severe drought, a startup called SWIIM enables farmers to lease water to other farmers.
- If California farmers do not use all of their water supply, they could be penalized by the state for wasting any of that water.
- SWIIM offers farmers the opportunity to avoid these penalties by putting their water to "beneficial use" and renting their water supply per acre-foot for as much as $200 to $450, according to Fast Company.
Dive Insight:
Fast Company calls SWIIM the "Airbnb for water," but in all seriousness, this method of water conservation may not only help California's agriculture industry, which uses approximately 80% of the state's water supply, but help the country's agricultural industry as a whole as well. SWIIM has already established itself in Colorado, and it recently signed a partnership with the Western Growers Association, "which represents family farmers in California and Arizona who produce half of the country's fruits and vegetables," according to Fast Company.