Water stress, a hallmark of the American West, is spreading east.
The shift is evident on Casey Cox's family farm in Georgia's agricultural heartland, where she turned on five giant rotating sprinklers to see her sweet corn through weeks of hot, dry weather last spring.
“If we hadn't had irrigation, our crop would have burned up completely,” said Ms. Cox, who with her father also produces soybeans, peanuts and timber on 2,400 acres.
More water to save Ms. Cox's crops, though, often means less for neighbors to the south such as Rickey Banks. He gave up his life as a Florida oysterman when his fishery, which depends on water from the same river basin as Ms. Cox's farm, collapsed during a drought.
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