That dairy company, named Almarai, bought the farm last year and has planted thousands of acres of groundwater-guzzling alfalfa to make that hay. Saudi Arabia can’t grow its own hay anymore because those crops drained its own ancient aquifer.
Reporter Nathan Halverson tells NPR’s Renee Montagne that Almarai bought about 15 square miles in the Arizona desert.
“They got about 15 water wells when they purchased the property. Now, each one of those wells can pump about 1.5 billion gallons of water. It’s an incredible amount of water they’re going to be drawing up from that aquifer underground,” Halverson says.
The land in question had previously been under cultivation for corn, cotton and other crops, including smaller amounts of alfalfa for hay, he tells The Salt. Halverson’s sources told him that the farm is now consuming significantly more water, since alfalfa is a particularly thirsty crop.
You can read the rest @
http://www.mintpressnews.com/saudi-arabian-company-buying-up-private-land-in-arizona-for-crop-production-after-depleting-domestic-water-sources/210948/
"Our" natural resources, particularly water, should not be squandered in this manner.
This is what happens when market state principles replace nation state concern for a country's own citizens. We have been betrayed and sold out in so many ways.
And far more serious betrayal is on the way, in the form of TPP, TTIP, TISA, and the other treasonous trade treaties.
"Free trade" = the rich get richer, while everyone else dies.
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