Gov. Jerry Brown wants to forbid you from hosing down the driveway. And he is really cranky about lawn watering. But corporate agriculture is free to plant all the water-gulping nut orchards it desires, even in a semi-desert. This is the essence of the governor’s new long-term drought policy that he announced Monday.

Brown intends to make permanent some urban water conservation rules that had been temporary. He also plans to give communities more flexibility to decide how much water they should save, depending on local conditions. But it’s basically hands off agriculture.