Arizona moves to end Saudi farm's controversial groundwater deals to grow, export alfalfa

Salamendacious@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 277 points – Arizona moves to end Saudi farm's controversial groundwater deals to grow, export alfalfa
azcentral.com

Gov. Katie Hobbs' administration on Monday announced two steps to stop a controversial Saudi Arabian company from using groundwater beneath state land in western Arizona to grow and export alfalfa.

Hobbs said in a statement that the Arizona State Land Department had canceled one of its leases to Fondomonte Arizona, and would not renew three others that are set to expire in February.

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This is amazing news. Glad we have an actual competent governor now. Good work Katie Hobbs! Fuck republican scum.

Was this a big issue in Arizona? Were lots of people upset about it?

Yes and yes. Water intensive crop grown in a place that lacks water resources.

Source: Arizonian

Agriculture uses up the most water in the Southwest - particularly in AZ and California. So, yes curtailing water use from thirsty crops is a big issue. Furthermore, these companies are drawing ground water from increasingly deep wells which is unsustainable and leads to shallower neighboring wells drying up.

I'm aware, at least superficially, about the problem. What I was getting at was how present is the problem in the minds of the average Arizonan. I could have worded it better. I appreciate the rundown though.

Every local news network has been covering it, for reference. It's pretty universally popular since it's a Saudi owned farm thats growing super, super wasteful alfalfa in the fucking desert.

Tbh, on the political front it's kind of a meatball thrown to Katie Hobbs, not that I'll be upset about that at all. Conservatives should never get their hands on the governorship again.

Well I'm glad she knocked that meatball right out of the park. I'm going to be watching your Senate race as soon as the primaries are over.

Trying to grow something in the middle of the desert... literally an explanation of the Saudi state.

The Arabian Desert is not continuous desert. However, the second worst place to put a city in the Arabian desert is occupied by the capital of Saudi Arabia. How's that for urban planning?

It's pretty big news since the reznicks would very very much like to divert attention away from their water use profiteering.

Hint, don't buy anything "Wonderful" or Fiji water.

The only water I buy is Polar seltzer and they bottle out of Massachusetts

Lots of people in Nevada also need that water. So yes.

I've heard that Nevada in general and Las Vegas specifically are really leading the way in water conservation. We really need to get ahead of this issue and stop playing catch up.

As ironic as that sounds considering the vast golf courses, water fountains on the LV strip, LV has actually taken meaningful steps to reduce water consumption. They've halved their water use in the last 20 years. Still could/should do more

You guys in the US are using up way too much of your groundwater for farming in scorching hot areas like Arizona and Texas even without the Saudis. Isn’t there enough farmland in states with a less hostile climate?

In the past there were enormous aquifers below the surface. The water was under so much pressure that you could tap it and it would erupt like a geyser. So for generations farmers in these areas had what they thought was unlimited water. Now those aquifers are empty or nearly empty and these farmers are resistant to that reality.

Of course no one wants to face this devastating reality…

In the end it will probably be a large wealth transfer from the states without groundwater to the ones that still have groundwater. Farmers will have to buy land in the groundwater states and the land in the dry states will be practically worthless.

I'm a true believer in technology so I'm hopeful that there will be considerable innovation in desalinization so we can continue to farm in arid areas.

Desalinization would only work in getting Los Angeles and San Diego off of Colorado River water.

The big money right now is in sewage treatment. There are several treatment plants in inland cities which treat their sewage water so that it can either be used for agricultural purposes or even get recycled as potable water.

That's interesting I'll have to do some research on that.

One of the more documented cases is the Intel chip plant in Chandler. Intel's plant treats its effluent to potable standards and pumps the water into the local aquifer to store it. Intel has a lot of water there.

Or we could just not live in the desert, living in biomes suitable to us and wasting fewer resources is more viable

I just don't see how that could be accomplished legally or politically.

Subsidies, taxes, tax credits, zoning, etc.

Maybe. (1) I don't think there's the political will to enact anything like that & (2) I don't think that would entice as many people as you think. People get really attached to their home. These areas are growing. The population in the southwest has grown over 11% in the last decade and it's projected to continue to grow.

Doesn't address the entire cities already there. We ain't forcing entire cities to just abandon ship.

It's far more useful if we talk about actually making what's already there sustainable rather than some authoritarian march out of the deserts.

It depends on the crops and the time of year.

A lot of the crops grown in Arizona are fruits and vegetables grown to be harvest in the off-season of typical harvests.

People should note that indigenous groups had also been practicing agriculture along the rivers all through the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. Agriculture isn't the problem overall, unsustainable crops like alfalfa are.

Maybe, but the Hohokam died out before the Columbian Exchange and part of it may have been related to a dry century.

The Hohokam are far from the only group that have lived in those deserts all along the Colorado and it's tributaries

Saudi Arabia unable to buy a US resource?

Ok who has meddled with the cosmic forces and needs to atone?