The reservoir was empty. The cracked concrete basin had stood baking in the sun for years. Catching my glance outside the window, the local farmers I was interviewing told me that government mismanagement caused the reservoir to fall into disarray. I was a volunteer surveyor assessing eligibility for microfinance loans that would help them sustain their agribusiness. Sensing something amiss, I hurried to the edge of the reservoir and immediately pulled out my camera. Seeing a marsh where irrigation water...

The community I grew up in was too far removed from the state’s major cities to have a lightning-fast work culture but too entrepreneurial to resemble a rural area. My community, Scripps Ranch in inland San Diego, is a strange rendition of a Midwest town. It has wide streets engulfed by Eucalyptus trees with businesses standing conspicuously on top of rural hills. It is a small community - but with its residents largely being computer scientists, biologists, and engineers....