Who's really using up the water in the American West?

This represents all the water used in one year in the Western United States. For the past 20-plus years, a megadrought, made worse by manmade global warming has left the West drier than it’s been in over a thousand years. That includes the Colorado River system where reservoirs have been depleted to record lows. Which has people talking about ways to cut back. “Cities are taking aim at the backyard swimming pool.” “Restrictions, such as not washing cars at home, and no power washing houses.” “Businesses and residents must cut their outdoor watering to just one day a week.” But this is all the residential water use for 115 million people across 17 Western states. All the lawn watering and tooth brushing and pools and showers use only 6 percent of all water consumption. The rest of this tells a totally different story. A team of researchers came up with these water use estimates. And they found that another 8 percent goes towards commercial and industrial uses like offices, hotel fountains, mines, and power plants. Together with residential use that’s 14 percent of all water consumption in the West. All of what’s left in here — the other 86 percent is for growing crops. Irrigated agriculture is the big story. All the other water users added together... don't come close to irrigated agriculture. In the dry western states, farms can’t count on rain so crops need irrigation. So here’s soybeans, nuts, wheat, fruits & veggies, corn. But what’s even more surprising is that the biggest share of this water goes to crops humans don’t eat. The biggest water guzzler is alfalfa. You might not recognize this plant but if you’ve ever seen a bale of hay that looks greenish: that’s alfalfa. Unlike a lot of crops, with enough water farmers in the West can harvest it up to 12 times a year and sell every last bit. It's about a 9 to 10 month crop down in our part of the desert. And so you're farming it 9 or 10 months and therefore, you're irrigating it during that time. We can group alfalfa’s water with the water used for other grass hays and for corn silage. Together, this accounts for 32% of the West’s entire water footprint. And what they have in common is that these are all crops grown almost exclusively to feed cows. That’s more than all the residential and commercial uses combined. A third of all the water consumed in the West... just for feeding cattle. Americans eat nearly 4 times more beef than the global average. Our dairy intake has been increasing for decades, too. And we’re not alone. At least 10% of this cattle feed ends up on container ships crossing the pacific to feed cows in Japan, China, and the Middle East. Agriculture in the United States is built to supply a world export market. So what do we do about this? It’s clear that letting our lawns die would make less of an impact than changing our diets. But that solution is a hard sell for consumers even the most informed ones. In case anybody takes me for like a meat hating like college professor... cheeseburgers are my favorite food. And my cheeseburgers come from Colorado River water. So I have thought about it and I think that before we all stop eating meat we should explore a couple of other solutions. Ben and his co-authors highlight an approach called “rotational fallowing.” It enables agencies representing metropolitan water users to set a price that they’ll pay farmers to temporarily stop irrigating a portion of their fields. Farmers decide whether it’s worth it in any given year to take that deal. And the unused water can then be sent to the cities... or left in reservoirs. Can fallowing hay and alfalfa in the Colorado River Basin solve the current 2022 year drought crisis? The answer is yes. There’s a long-term agreement like this in place between the water district that serves LA and San Diego and the Palo Verde Irrigation District in rural California. The deal allows up to 29% of the total farmland to be fallowed. It's been largely well received in our valley. I think farmers like it. Bart Fisher’s farm depends entirely on water from the Colorado River so he supports the conservation program. But he also says it doesn't work for everyone. Whenever you do fallowing there are economic losers and economic winners. And some of our vendors who may sell seed or fertilizer, they're a loser. Jobs, communities, and global supply chains currently rely on western farmers growing vast amounts of cow food in the middle of the desert. But as water supplies continue to shrink, something has to give: in how we eat, what we grow, and where we grow it. When you look at the water use on the river the short term savings has to come out of agriculture. There's no... there's no other place to get it.

Channel: Vox

Views: 1,279,930

Keywords: American West, Colorado River, Joss Fong, Lake Mead, Lake Powell, Laura Bult, Vox.com, agriculture, alfalfa, beef, cattle, cattle feed, cows, dairy, drought, explain, explainer, farmer, hay, irrigation, lawns, reservoirs, river, vox, water, water crisis, water scarcity, water supply, west, western United States, farming, alfalfa export, industrialized farming, water shortage

Id: f0gN1x6sVTc

Length: 5min 55sec (355 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 26 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Dayana2]

In this interview Gov Spencer Cox completely sidesteps any questions about alfalfa farming and brings up farmers in general.

https://www.hjnews.com/news/local/gov-cox-voices-support-for-farmers-expanded-great-salt-lake-preservation-efforts-in-visit-to/article_6e331efe-2b18-11ed-979e-fb486e1e497c.html

[u/coolassdude1]

It's insane to me that those in power are totally fine with letting this valley become a toxic hell scape just so like 10 people can make a ton of money. It's so depressing

[u/[deleted]]

Isn’t there a new Utah politician who is either a current or ex alfalfa farmer?

[u/basketball1959]

In the end it's all about the $$$. You can bet ole sly Cox ain't goina sell out his land.

[u/DW171]

And a large portion of the alfalfa is sold to Asia for animal feed

[u/onandagusthewhite]

One point I rarely see brought up in these discussions is that the water used by your shower head, or anywhere else inside your home or business, goes to the local water treatment plant and then into Utah Lake, or the GSL or water ways leading into the lakes. Comparing inside water use to alfalfa farming or landscaping, golf courses or any other outside use where the water just evaporates is completely different.

Also, alfalfa farming outside of the GSL water drainage, like in Southern Sanpete county or Beaver etc... is just fine. They can run out of water if they want to.

[u/dutsnekcirf]

As someone who is basically out of the loop, I have noted more than a few posts like this one stating that alfalfa farmers are using the largest portion of the water in this state. While I don’t doubt the claims, I’m curious if any alfalfa farmers, or representative organizations have provided any sort of rebuttal. What are their justifications for using so much water? Why hasn’t the state taken any actions to mitigate the problem? What is the proposed solution?

[u/cristorocker]

Agriculture uses 85 percent of the water in Utah. Most of their product shipped out of State. But blaming residential use 6% or commercial use (golf courses) also 6% is apparently a useful distraction for the actual exploters and profiteers.

[u/lostinareverie237]

Not to mention much of that alfalfa isn't even used in the US, so I mean kinda not cool with that as well