The skin is used as compost, while the beans are raked out to dry in the mountain air.

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Mountain chaparral and shrubs are dry because Los Angeles has received only half of its normal rainfall the past two years, Myers said.

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About 250km (150 miles) to the north, in neighbouring Shanxi province, in Pingdong, a much poorer village, 250 people live along battered dirt roads, and try to grow wheat, corn, soyabeans and winter melon on the dry, rocky mountain land.

ECONOMIST: Farmers pay the price for decades of wasteful water use