> You don't have to shutdown agriculture elsewhere, and it is a vital part of california's economy, that's just a lazy solution.

Agribusiness is under 2% of the California economy and an even smaller employer. You could wipe it completely out and the state would barely notice.

And nobody is saying to wipe out actual food production. Mostly people want to stomp on things like growing and exporting alfalfa (which is effectively exporting water for all intents and purposes).

> droughts have been a plague for the past few decades

Droughts have been a plague forever. Quoting Steinbeck from East of Eden:

“During the dry years, the people forgot about the rich years, and when the wet years returned, they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.”